


I Love You, You Pay My Rent.

by Imgonnabeyourbubblegumwitch



Series: I Love You, You Pay My Rent [1]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types
Genre: Alcohol, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Drinking, F/M, Fake/Pretend Relationship, M/M, Misunderstandings, Nico is not really sure what Will's deal is, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Rom-com ridiculousness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-29
Updated: 2018-07-02
Packaged: 2018-12-08 13:34:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 25
Words: 85,359
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11647602
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Imgonnabeyourbubblegumwitch/pseuds/Imgonnabeyourbubblegumwitch
Summary: When Nico finds himself in need of an apartment he meets professional rich-person, Will Solace who, for long and complicated reasons Nico is sure are never actually explained to him, has found himself in need of a roommate. At first Nico is reluctant: Will seems happy-go-lucky, cheerful and positive – everything he is not. And frankly, if he hears Will’s in-the-shower cover of Don’t’ Let the Sun go Down on me one more time he’s not going to be responsible for the consequences. But Will is offering to pay Nico’s rent and Nico can’t exactly turn down an offer like that no matter how much Will’s singing and incessant cheer might annoy him…





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Story and chapter titles from, or adapted from, "Rent" by the Pet Shop Boys.

Prologue.

In which Nico decides to move in with Will Solace. 

 

Nico Di Angelo honestly wasn’t sure when or where he first met Will Solace. It might have been when he was working a late-shift at a bar downtown. Will (though there was a good chance it hadn’t been Will at all) had come in with a group of friends who were every bit as bubbly, attractive and incessantly cheerful as Will himself was. He vaguely remembered someone blonde and sunshine-like chattering as they ordered shots. Of course, that could also have been any other of Will’s friends. Nico would freely admit he hadn’t really been paying attention, not to the face and certainly not to the words. He tried as hard as he could not to pay attention to his any of his customers, no matter how much his complete disinterest annoyed his manager.

  
It was quite possible that the first time they had met was in Nico’s cafe. It wasn’t in any legal-ownership sense of the word actually his, but it was a short walk away from his old apartment, was reasonably quiet and had a strong wifi connection so Nico had adopted it as his own. He’d been trying to research places to rent: he’d been sharing with Leo (tiny, scrappy, latino, and a constant fidgeter) but then Leo had met Calypso (pretty waitress who worked at a cake shop and did the gardens of people who actually had space for a garden) and the two had decided to go on a soul-searching trip around the world and/or open up a café slash garage. That left Nico with either finding someone to go halves on the rent, or finding a new place to stay. Both options seemed like a circle of hell designed especially for him, but he’d eventually decided to just try and find somewhere new since interviewing potential roommates was more than he could bear.

  
He’d been enjoying a cup of black coffee, the quiet, and the wifi which allowed him to cry at rental prices on one of the many old laptops they had lying around that Leo had got tired of jury-rigging or tinkering with. Then the door had opened and in stalked a bunch of people who were so self-aware of their own beauty and good fortune that they created a kind of vortex of wealth and power that forced others to look at them so they could be simultaneously awed and jealous. The group were followed by a gaggle of interested onlookers and hangers-on, mostly star-struck girls in their teens and early twenties, but there was the occasional guy too, presumably for variety and so that the couple of girls in the group had someone to show off for. Nico wasn’t at all interested in sticking around so he’d packed up his laptop and left. He’d brushed past someone tall and blonde on his way out and he’d briefly wondered if he’d just walked into Will Solace but he was tired, irritable and frankly didn’t care enough to check.

  
The first time they met could equally have been at one of Percy’s many parties. Percy Jackson was the son of one of his dad’s two business partners and as such the two of them had often been thrown together while growing up. Nico had had a painfully painful crush on Percy for the majority of his teenage years and though he was positively and completely over Percy, for sure, it was difficult seeing him and his long-term girlfriend together. Annabeth was perfect for Percy in every way that Nico wasn’t, and he knew now that dating Percy would never have worked out. He had begun to focus on some of Percy’s faults and, almost two years after he and Annabeth had gone off to college together and Nico had had to accept they weren’t going to do the decent thing and split up, he was able to be in the same room as him without thinking thoughts better suited to moody poetry written by the moody-trash-teen he knew he still was at heart.

  
But Percy was his first crush. And being around a very drunk Percy was often about as fun as having teeth pulled. A very drunk Percy usually went between PDAs with the long-suffering Annabeth, telling Nico how he was the luckiest guy on earth to have such a great girl put up with him, and telling Nico he was the luckiest guy on earth to have such a great friend because Nico you’re just, you’re like the little brother that I like, never had, man. It was probably selfish but at times like that Nico did not want to be Percy’s friend. And even now when he was pretty sure he was almost 100% over Percy Jackson there was still a little part of him that still hoped. It was a pathetic part of him prone to mooning about his room and hopeless daydreams but it was a part of him nonetheless no matter how much he wished it would shut up and let him move on. The only saving grace (ha!) of that particular party had been Jason, the son of the other business partner and as such the other kid he’d been frequently thrown together with. Jason was at college over in LA and his trip back to the city had been short and whirl-wind and the only reason Nico deigned to turn up at Percy and Annabeth’s apartment at all.

  
No matter what people said, Nico wasn’t anti-social as such. He just preferred his social in careful measures, and not all at once. That was not at all possible at Percy’s. He was accosted by several of Percy’s friends within thirty seconds of him walking through the door. Nico had tried propping up the wall and putting on his emo-teen-don’t-talk-to-me-loner-aura but either he was getting worse at projecting the leave-me-alone vibe, or Percy’s friends were getting friendlier. Or drunker. One of the two. Quite possibly both. Jason hadn’t yet arrived and Nico wasn’t going to leave until he said hi and bye and why did you make me come? So, he’d tried hanging out in the bathroom where the door had a lock (and if anyone wanted to throw up they’d just have to do it in a bin or something and that was the price Percy paid for having Nico here).

  
He had been surprised to find there was already somebody in there: lying in the bathtub so still that for a moment Nico thought that someone had been murdered. He was envisioning scenarios of him, Percy and Jason trying to pretend this person was still alive until they found a way to identify and then dispose of the body, when the dead person moved slightly proving themselves not dead after all. He had an arm over his face so Nico couldn’t make out any features. He did see a mop of blonde hair and so when his half-sister Hazel texted him the next day if it were true that William Solace, professional rich-person and minor celebrity, had been at Percy’s party Nico had shrugged and said possibly and that there was a chance he’d met him in a bathtub. Admittedly Percy had had lots of blonde friends and most of them looked alike, so really it was far more likely that that wasn’t Will at all, but it had made for a good story and Hazel (admittedly the only person he’d told it to) had enjoyed it.

  
The first time Nico could actually remember meeting Will for sure, was when Will had intercepted him on his way to the library. The first thing he could recall was bumping into someone very solid and then there was the impression of tanned skin and a constellation of freckles and very, very blue eyes. His stomach exploded into butterflies and he was simultaneously disgusted in himself for being so weak and clinically interested in his attraction to someone who a) wasn’t Percy, and b) was so stereotypically stunning that he should have been boring (and not at all interested in stopping Nico in the street and babbling at him but that was a different matter entirely).

  
Nico had stepped back automatically and regarded the individual. He was tall and yep, he had golden blonde hair and a nice smile. He was also notably happy, like someone had distilled down the sun and poured it out into one golden person. Nico was taking a moment to decide whether he should dislike him on principle, when it occurred to him Sunshine was dressed all in black (which wasn’t all that strange to Nico considering his own dress), and had dark make-up smudged over his cheeks (which kind of reminded Nico simultaneously of a raccoon and his own early and disastrous attempts to operate eyeliner).

  
“Is this one of those dumb hazing things?” Nico asked.

  
Will looked too lazy to play sport, though Nico was pretty sure he was fit enough to excel if he’d wanted. Nico struggled not to look at the outline of his shoulders or the suggestion of abs that were hidden beneath a dark top that was just tight enough to hint at his physique but not tight enough to confirm it. Instead he focused on attempting to communicate how stupid he thought Will’s get up was, and consequently how stupid Will himself was, through only his eyes.

  
“It’s supposed to be a recon simulation or something. I’m blending in with the shadows or whatever.”

  
“Your hair is bright gold. And it’s 2pm. The sun is up. You are not blending in with anything.”

  
Will studied Nico for a moment and then shrugged.

  
“Mostly I’m just relying on my friends to distract the other guys so I don’t have to.”

  
Nico thought that Will was perfectly distracting on his own what with the way the sun glinted through his stupid golden hair and his eyes sparkled cheerfully. And Nico’s lunchbreak was only half an hour and he had to return some books on behalf of one of his friends who actually attended the university. And Will might have perfect abs (probably) but that did not entitle him to Nico’s library-book-returning-and-quick-sandwich break.

  
“Whatever.” he said, sidestepping Will. “I need to get to the library. I’ll see you around or whatever.”

  
He began to walk off. He could hear a voice in his head (it sounded like Jason) telling him that a cute guy was paying attention to him and that he should at least get the cute guy’s number. Nico was good at ignoring Jason, and even better at ignoring the Jason who resided in his head and gave him advice like: don’t stay up all night watching Netflix, don’t eat all that ice cream in one go, and broccoli will be yummy if you eat it enough. He was also good at self-sabotage. It was one of his only talents.

  
“Hey,” Will said, falling into step with a very surprised Nico. “You’re Nico right?”

  
Nico had to stop himself from stopping dead because attractive, famous, arguably talented (Will presumably did something other than being attractive) guys didn’t usually know his name, let alone stop him in the street and attempt a conversation.

  
“Are you stalking me?” Nico asked. “Because that would be a lot more effective if you didn’t stand out so much.”

  
“No, not stalking I swear. Though I’ll admit this probably does look a little creepy.” Will gave a self-conscious shrug as though the concept that randomly stopping a stranger in the street might be classed as creepy had only just occurred to him.

“Percy mentioned you,” Will continued. “He says you were looking for somewhere to live.”

  
“Percy talks way too much,” Nico commented vowing to slowly kill Percy later the interfering little –

  
“Yeah, he kind of does,” Will agreed easily. “Look, I know this is really out-of-nowhere but I’m of looking for someone to live with me and that’s why Percy said I should talk to you and I guess I just assumed he’d mentioned me to you and I’m just now thinking I could probably have approached this better –“

  
“You think?”

  
“I looked out for you at Percy’s party the other week? He said you’d be there.”

  
“Percy is a traitor and whatever he’s told you about me it probably isn’t true.”

  
Will raised an eyebrow.

  
“So, you’re not looking for somewhere?”

  
“Okay,” Nico admitted grudgingly. “That part was true.”

  
Will regarded Nico thoughtfully and then pulled a slim notebook out of his pocket, followed by a lime green sharpie. He scribbled something down , tore it off, and then held it out to Nico.

  
“You don’t have to decide now, but at least take my number. The offer is there if you can’t find anywhere else.”

  
Nico thought that over for a moment. On one hand, he was loathe to start living with one of Percy’s friends on Percy’s suggestion because while Percy didn’t have a terrible taste in friends as such, they did tend to be very full on. On the other hand, Will had really beautiful eyes and he could pull off a puppy dog expression far too well for a grown adult individual.

  
He took Will’s number. He didn’t have to text him. He could always throw away the scrap of paper after Will left. He wasn’t weak and he didn’t have a new-found appreciation for blue eyes and smiles that felt like the warmth of the sun.

  
In the week following his meeting with Will, Nico had been desperately trying to find somewhere to live but everywhere was either too expensive, wasn’t habitable, or was co-inhabited by someone creepy (one who apparently hadn’t needed to blink and could outstare a statue, one who was weirdly into Nico, and one who collection of antique dolls and medical tools through the ages). He rejected everything on offer and told himself that something would come along.

  
It was only as he watched Leo begin the process of packing that Nico realised he had to make a decision. And Will was (probably) better than the doll and medical tools guy.  
He’d kept a hold of the scrap of paper but hadn’t input Will’s number into his phone because that had seemed like admitting defeat. Now the innocuous bit of paper seemed to follow him around everywhere he went, taunting him. It didn’t need to. Nico had the numbers memorised from all the times he’d stared at it in indecision. He could reproduce it from memory: the slightly swirly zeros, the weird way Will crossed through his sevens and the oddly skinny eight.

  
He’d spent an hour agonising over the text he would send: adding and deleting emojis and rewriting and rearranging words. In the end when he was almost ready to give up and settle for creepy-doll-guy, he went for simple and to the point. The fact he got a reply within seconds full of emojis and apparently brimming with excitement made him resentful he had spent so long crafting the text. He was pretty sure Will would have reacted with the same nauseating good natured-ness no matter what he’d sent.

  
They’d arranged a time to meet and now after a grand total of one to a possible four meetings with the guy, Nico found himself standing outside an unfamiliar door that could potentially be the door to his new home, waiting for Will-freaking-Solace to answer. He knocked again, louder this time then pressed his ear to the door. He thought he could hear singing. He knocked once more, deciding that is Will didn’t come to the door in thirty seconds he was going to give up on the whole thing.

  
He was at twenty-eight when without any kind of warning the door swung open and Will was there.

  
He was sans make-up this time. His blonde hair was damp, sticking up in little clumps and he was in an old pair of sweatpants and a tshirt. He grinned at Nico like Nico was the best thing he’d seen that year and opened the door wider, stepping aside to let him pass.

“I’m so sorry,” he said as Nico entered. “I had to take a shower. I was walking Drew’s dogs because –“

  
Nico tuned him out in pure self defence against inane babble, and glanced around the apartment instead. The living space was open plan and big, far bigger than the place he had shared with Leo. The kitchen was clean and the combined living and dining areas were neat and well decorated though they did seem a little impersonal: he’d thought Will would be the messy type, and the type to have knick knacks and trinkets and momentos cluttering every available surface. There were a couple of posters – stylised framed images of posters for theatre shows - but he couldn’t tell if they were Will’s or whether they had been part of the furnishings when Will had moved in.

  
Will showed him around. Aside from the living areas there were two bedrooms, a small study that seemed largely unused and a laundry room. Will’s room was gloomier than Nico had expected with the curtains fully drawn, and was significantly messier than the communal areas (that wasn’t hard) though it still had the same odd sense of almost clinical detatchness. Still while it didn’t exactly go with his mental picture of Will it wasn’t all that strange in of itself: perhaps Will just hadn’t been living there very long. The other room – Nico’s room – was slightly smaller, squarish and had an attached bathroom. There was a double bed, good closet space and a hefty set of drawers for storing the clothes he couldn’t be bothered to hang and the rest of his junk. It was a surprisingly decent room in a surprisingly decent apartment.

  
After the tour Will asked if Nico wanted anything to drink in the manner of someone determined to be a good and attentive host. Nico wasn’t going to pass up the offer for free anything so he sat the breakfast bar while Will made him coffee.

  
“What do you think?” Will asked. His eyes were very earnest as he poured out Nico’s drink, but he seemed to be avoiding Nico’s gaze. He looked almost nervous, tugging at the hemline of his tshirt and distracting himself by adding ten tonnes of sugar to his own mug.

  
“It’s tolerable,” Nico said.

  
Will looked up at him in surprise and gave him a small smile. It wasn’t his mega-watt supernova bright grin and somehow it was all the more attractive for how understated it was. Nico almost found himself smiling back.

  
“So do you want to move in?” Will asked. He still seemed nervous, hesitant. He was employing the puppy dog eyes again – Nico wondered if Will even realised he was doing it.

  
“How much do you want?” Nico asked.

  
“Oh I don’t need anything,” Will said with an easy shrug that looked far more like his usual confident self.

  
“Huh?” Nico said unintelligently.

  
“You don’t have to pay. I don’t need anything.”

  
“But you said you needed someone to-"

“I do,” Will admitted. “But I don’t need the money.”

  
Nico gave him an odd look.

  
“You’re not some kind of criminal are you? A murderer who needs me around so you don’t give in to the urge to kill?”

 

“You’re kind of dark, you know that?”

  
Nico raised an eyebrow sceptically at that.

  
“Really Sunshine?” he asked. “You’re only getting that now?”

  
Will giggled, actually giggled, and it was oddly endearing.

  
“How about a trial?” Will suggested. “Two weeks. If you still think I’m a murderer after that I’ll let you go and won’t kill you at all. I promise.”

  
Nico stared at him. On one hand, the situation was a little weird and he’d only just met Will and this was all kind of impulsive. On the other it was hard to imagine Will killing anyone. Besides Nico worked two jobs and still had barely made enough to keep up with his rent at Leo’s. If he moved in with Will, he would be close to his jobs and close enough to Percy that if he ever had an attack of sociability he could visit him. Hazel was nearby. The shops were nearby. It was pretty much perfect if only he could put up with Will, and how much he talked.

  
“Three days,” Nico said. “I think by then I’ll have figured out whether you’re a murderer or not. And whether I’m likely to murder you or not.”

  
Will’s eyes flicked up to his. He looked excited, happy, so cheerful, but Nico also thought he saw relief there.

  
“Deal,” Will said.


	2. Chapter One - You bring me food

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Nico makes a memorable first impression, the pair order takeout, and Will reveals he's superstitious.

Nico had been officially living with Will Solace, professional rich person and minor celebrity for a grand total of one and a half days. It had, so far and against all expectations, been uneventful. Will hadn't actually been around all that much, though what he during the day Nico wasn't sure because he was pretty convinced Will didn't have an actual, proper job. The only evidence Nico was sharing a very nice apartment with another human being was the leftover pizza that had appeared in the fridge, an empty bottle of vodka that had appeared in the recycling and a memorable 5am rendition of the circle of life followed by a long period of rapping and Will shouting Alexander Hamilton over and over again. Nico hadn't known if Will were coming or going, waking up to go out, or drunk and coming in, and by the time he himself had gotten up several hours later at a far more sociable time Will was nowhere to be found.

Nico heated up the pizza, and tossed the note inviting him to help himself in the trash. He wandered around the apartment as he ate, picking pineapple off his slices as he went. He still couldn't believe he had ended up here, rent free. He was still slightly suspicious about Will's motives. No one let a stranger stay with them rent free. No one. Maybe there was some kind of bet involved. Or maybe Will was running some kind of scam, or was avoiding taxes.

Still even though he might be an unwitting accomplice to a crime, Nico had to admit the benefits of living with Will, for the moment, outweighed the projected cost of a lengthy court case and some time behind bars for misconduct unknown.

It was weird, though, having so much space and time to himself. Nico didn't usually crave human interaction, in fact he usually attempted to keep it at bay with a long stick, dark clothes and a bite-me attitude, but it _was_ odd being on his own. Living with Leo had been living with constant noise. Leo just did not have an off-switch and so Nico had been constantly working to tune out an endless feed of useless chatter. And even in those rare moments when Leo wasn't talking, he was usually hammering at something that didn't look like it should be hammered. That or taking part in dubious DIY tasks that either worked against all odds, or failed spectacularly and required a visit from one of Leo's many and undefined relatives who between them seemed to fulfil the complete home construction spectrum.

Life for Will, aside from the 5am shower concert thing, was apparently going to be quiet.

In an attempt to be a decent housemate Nico washed up the plate he'd used as a morgue for the rejected pineapple and only used two exclamation marks on the note he left for Will on the fridge questioning the inclusion of the topping on pizza. Then he wandered around the living room for the sheer novelty of having enough space to be able to wander around the living room. It had been a long time since he'd been in an apartment this fancy, back before Leo when he'd lived with his father, or more accurately a series of housekeepers and au pairs while his father worked. They hadn't really been home, those apartments, any more than the family mansion they drove to every Christmas. With his father Nico would never have dared wake up at two-thirty in the afternoon, to wander around eating pizza, not even in the school holidays. His father had instilled in him, that there was always work to be done, and more importantly there was always someone watching. He should conduct himself with decorum. 

He suddenly felt very self-conscious. He wasn't sure when Will would be coming back and even though Will had insisted he make himself at home, Nico felt strange being in the clothes he'd worn yesterday to move in in. He'd slept in them, curled up on the bare mattress, because he couldn't be bothered to search through his meagre possessions for his pyjamas and sheets. But he didn't want Will to get the impression that he was a slob, however accurate that impression might actually be so he retreated back to his room, not quite running but definitely moving at something quicker than a walk.

The boxes and bags he'd brought with him from his old apartment were stacked in a corner of the room that was now his. He really didn't have much. One bag of laundry he hadn't had time to do before leaving Leo's. A small box of assorted nick nacks, toys and other items he didn't really know what to do with: his mythomagic cards banded together with a corroding rubber band, an old notebook he'd used as a diary for a couple of weeks before he'd gotten bored with the idea of writing every day, other junk. Then lastly there was a black duffle bag which had his clean clo-

He withdrew a bright top he'd never wear, followed by a strange hat and what looked like part of an engine.  These weren’t his clothes. This was Leo's bag. Which meant Leo had his clothes, Leo who was now probably half way across the country had _his_ _clothes_. And Nico had a jacket, the outfit he was wearing and a three quarters full bag of laundry. He didn't even have his bed sheets: he'd shoved them in the bag along with his clothes.

Okay, he thought, it's fine. There was the laundry, he'd just have to do that. That would give him one work outfit, a pair of jeans that had seen better days and a couple of tops. Then there were the clothes he was in. He could wash those too. And, in the meantime, he'd just have to wear -

He looked back at Leo's bag with growing horror. He tipped it all out on his floor and there was a worrying clanking sound. He sorted through all the stuff, moving mechanical devices, screwdrivers and a chocolate bar over to the sell-for-scrap pile (and if Leo was upset about that he should have thought about it before making off with Nico's stuff). That left him with a handful of crumpled t-shirts that were small even for him, and a pair of shorts that were faded, stained and so threadbare it was hard to tell if Leo wore them or used them for cleaning.

It wasn't a great selection but he pulled on one of the bigger t-shirts, and the shorts. The t-shirt was bright yellow with a sunny, tropical picture of a parrot and some fruit. It ended too quickly and was far too tight. The shorts were little better: too low and, since the elastic had gone, worryingly loose around his hips. Now he really prayed that wherever Will was he was planning on staying there a long time.

He scooped up his own clothes and hurried to the washer. He dumped the lot in the machine and scouted around for washing powder. He closed the lid and then had to come to terms with the fact he had absolutely no idea how the washing machine worked. He stared at the control panel for a full minute trying to decipher symbols and pictograms that littered a control panel that looked like it should be controlling the enterprise rather than just washing your clothes. He stabbed a few buttons at random, and hoping he hadn't accidentally summoned a demon, ran back to his room like a skittish rabbit lest Will enter and see his bright yellow t-shirt and shorts of shame.

The washing machine was making comforting washing sounds that Nico could hear even from his room so he let it get on with it and focused on the other box he'd brought with him. Some of the items, like the mythomagic cards or his older sister’s teddy bear, he knew he'd never be able to part with but most of it was trash. Broken toys and memories had been heaped on the pile of useless junk from Leo's bag (he'd claimed the chocolate bar as his own). He was reading through his diary with the self-aware pain that came from reading the things his younger self had found angst-worthy (if only he'd known) when he first noticed that Will's nice wooden floor suddenly felt kind of wet.

Nico swore resolutely and scrambled to his feet. The washing machine was still rumbling happily but was now disgorging oddly tinted water on the floor in torrents. A panicked ten seconds of button mashing yielded no immediate halt to its attempt to flood the place so Nico decided to end it at the source and seek out it's kill switch. That proved to be harder than he'd imagined. He just couldn't find the lead and was beginning to think he'd discovered the world's first washing machine that could run on pure spite alone.

He slapped it since he had the impression this usually worked with computers but that only left him with a sore hand. Grumbling furiously, he ran into his bathroom, discovered he had also managed to forget towels were a necessity, backtracked to Will's. Towels in hand he began trying to limit the progress of the flood with an improvised wall, so that he would be less worried about the concerningly purple water damaging anything expensive, or creating an interesting reaction with anything electronic in the living room before he could subdue the poltergeist residing in the washing machine.

Barrier temporarily holding the flood at bay, he proceeded back to the washing machine with phone in hand.

"You are making me look on forums," he told the washing machine. "I officially hate you."

In response the machine began spitting up heavily fragranced bubbles.

Nico swore again, this time with even more feeling.

Okay, forget forums, it was time to call Leo.

Leo answered on what felt like the nine-hundreth ring. At the exact same time, Nico saw his mythomagic cards floating gently past amid a happy scattering of floral scented bubbles. He vocalised his feelings about this in no uncertain terms that made Leo threaten to clean his mouth out with soap the next time they saw each other.

"You probably won't need to," Nico said darkly as he bent down to pick up one of the cards and ended up with a nose full of bubbles. "Not if this keeps up."

"You're making no sense Nico."

He lunged for another card - Hades, that had a permanent place in all his decks - and slipped. He managed to stay upright but went skidding along on his towel barrier which had pretty much reached the limits of it's effectiveness. In an effort to stop himself from faceplanting the floor and/or banging into anything that looked breakable he threw out his hands and while remembering to keep a firm grip on his childhood cards, forgot about his phone which went flying at the front door.

The front door which was open and framing a very confused Will Solace.

"Oh gods," Nico had time to say before his phone hit Will in the nose.

There was a pause while Nico tried to find the words to explain the water and the bubbles and the cards and - oh hell - his clothes. Will surveyed the chaos with an unreadable expression. And then he burst out laughing.

It was unexpected but it was better than the yelling.

"What happened?" Will asked. "Are those mythomagic cards?"

He too another, longer look at Nico taking in the outfit and Nico's unsuccessful attempts to stand in slippery socks on a sodden floor.

"I like the t-shirt," he commented. "Very subversive. I can see you are really trying to mock -"

He broke off dissolving into laughter.

"I'm sorry," he said between giggles, "you - just - look- "

"Yeah, yeah," Nico grumbled. "Well the bubbles in _your_ hair look ridiculous."

Will put a hand up to his head and as he did Nico threw a handful of bubbles at him. They missed, by a long way, because bubbles weren't a particularly reliable throwing material. Will laughed even harder and tried to throw some back but his aim was even poorer because he was giggling so much. Nico fell down again and he though he tried to stop himself he couldn't help but start giggling too.

Will had left the door open and an older lady with perfectly coiled hair and a fur coat was looking in at them in obvious consternation and disapproval. Nico waved and Will turned.

"Good afternoon Mrs Dodds," Will said. "Lovely weather we're having, isn't it?"

Mrs Dodds scoffed and turned her back on them. Nico began laughing at the stupidness of the situation and his laughter set Will off again. Will looked cute when he laughed: nose (red from where the phone had struck) all scrunched up like a kid he looked less like some unattainable-rock-star-minor-god-model, and more down to earth. Nico felt his heart skip a beat and a few tentative butterflies preparing to take flight in his stomach. The feelings were oddly sobering and he felt the laughter dying in his throat.

"I really am sorry about the mess," he said. "I must be the worst housemate you've ever had."

"Oh, not by a long shot," Will said amiably. "I once had someone who collected dead frogs.”

He tried to lever himself to his feet and after several attempts managed to get to his feet and with an awkward, penguin on ice like shuffle made it to the front door which he shut very firmly.

"How about I order food, we put on some music and have a cleaning up party?" he suggested.

"You don't have to help," Nico said. "I'll do it, I did make the mess."

" _I_ forget to warn you the washing machine can be temperamental," Will said with a shrug. "Though I've never seen it do _this_ before. You've got some quite incredible machine-messing skills, Di Angelo."

Nico grinned. It was an automatic response to Will's light teasing that he didn't have time to think through, or dampen down.

"Gotta be good at something," Nico said. "And for me that something is riling up the demon ghost that resides in your washing machine."

"They should write a film about your exploits," Will commented, completely straight faced. "I bagsie the rights."

"Only if you promise to hire

Will ordered Chinese. He put on some music - something upbeat and poppy that Nico wouldn't usually necessarily enjoy but actually worked pretty well trying to clean up a lilac coloured flood with his new landlord.

Will brought out more towels from the bathroom and tossed some to Nico. Then he paused.

"I don't have a mop," he said as though it had only just occurred to him.

"Why don't you have a mop?" Nico asked.

"Did you have a mop at your old place?" Will demanded.

"Yes!" Nico said. "We weren't heathens! We just didn't have a hoover, or a dishcloth for a long time, or plates for the first few weeks. But a mop! Of course."

"Yeah well I'd offer you a discount on your rent for forgetting such an important life-changing item but you're not actually paying me anything so-"

"You could always start paying me to live here," Nico mused.

Will stuck his tongue out and then sighed.

"One of my neighbours probably has one."

He sloshed his way over to the door.

"Be right back. Wish me luck."

"You're asking to borrow a mop from your neighbours, how much luck can you need?"

Will pulled a face that indicated he had shocking, horrifying knowledge that no mortal should posses.

"You don't want to know," he said in a deep whisper and then darted out, closing the door behind him.

As soon as he was gone, the butterflies that had been previously hesitant and timid took full flight in Nico's stomach. He realised he was smiling and wiped the expression off his face and focused very hard on extracting sodden mythomagic cards and leaving them all lined up on the counter tops to dry.

Will returned some ten minutes later with a mop and a chastised air.

"Nancy was of your view that mops are a basic human right and she could not believe I do not own one."

"See," Nico said.  “It’s not just me who thinks you are a heathen.”

Nico was not usually a fan of cleaning but working alongside Will was kind of fun. It may have had something to do with Will, who was in charge of mopping and was utterly distracting. He spent more time dancing with the mop and singing along to whatever song was playing than actually mopping. Nico could hardly drag his eyes away from him, so he pointed out, perfectly reasonably, that it was an inefficient method of mopping and that Will's music choice sucked.

"Alright what would you put on?"

Nico hadn't been expecting that.

"I don't know. The Ramones maybe?"

Will held his gaze while he retrieved his laptop and then changed the song with a slight smirk.

"What you didn't think I'd have the Ramones?"

"I thought it would be all Disney songs and show tunes."

"Disney songs and show tunes?" Will asked sounding like he was trying not to laugh.

"I don't know," Nico admitted, "I have no idea what you like."

"They come on later," Will promised him with a grin.

Ten minutes later they were both jumping up and down to Blitzkrieg Bop and Will was singing and he was actually not all that bad when it wasn't 5am. They were halfway through the second verse when someone began banging on the walls.

"Oh ignore it," Will said. "That's Octavian. He's always complaining about something. Like when I hoover at 3am."

"Why do you -?"

"Because the night before Octavian was grinding breeze blocks and some sheet metal in his blender. I assume that's what he was doing. That's what it sounded like he was doing."

The banging sounded again, on the door this time. Will rolled his eyes but he stormed over and yanked the door open, shutting down the music with a wave of a remote as his did so. 

"Hello Octavian," Will said with a forced polite smile. "Is everything alright? If you've come to borrow a mop I'm afraid I'm lacking that basic necessity."

Nico laughed and Octavian cast his sharp eyes over to him. Octavian was pale and thin. His eyes were faint blue and his hair was thin, and almost colourless. The general impression he gave was of a scarecrow that had been modelled on a skeleton. All the right features were there and they were all in the right places but the proportions and the colour scheme was entirely off.

"Can you keep it down?" Octavian asked. "I'm trying to work. Not all of us get money handed to us on a silver platter you know."

Will shrugged at that, but Nico thought that something about the jibe may have hit home because he seemed a little tenser.

"So sorry to interrupt your work. I know it's all you have since you can't seem to keep friends."

"Look who's talking," Octavian sneered. "How many housemates have you gone through now? How long do you think this one will stay?"

He glanced over at Nico again, looked him up and down and then turned away without comment as though he didn't think Nico was worth it.

"We'll try to keep the sounds of us enjoying our lives from disturbing your emptiness," Will snapped and closed the door in Octavian's face. He didn't turn around immediately and Nico got the impression he was trying to force himself back towards cheerfulness.

"To be fair," Will said when he did turn. "We probably were being kind of loud."

He put the music back on but in deference to Octavian it was no longer deafening and could be classed merely as noisy. In deference to the fact that Will hadn't freaked out when he'd come home to a flood, Nico didn't bring up what Octavian had said about the other housemates. It didn't stop him wondering though. Will seemed nice enough but Nico still couldn't get past the no rent thing. It made no sense to him. He couldn't figure out why Will would be so desperate to have someone in his spare room that he'd offer it to them for free.

By the time the food came, the flat was pretty clean. Nico's jeans, now several shades lighter than their once jet black, and other clothes had been shoved in the dryer. The floor was mopped, all of Nico's cards were drying on the counter tops. Order had been restored.

Will put on a movie while they ate. Will had seen it before and Nico was more interested in watching Will out the corner of his eye so he often missed big plot points. Will seemed happy enough but Nico got the impression he was worried from the way he picked at his food rather than just eating it. In the end, Will put it to the side entirely and picked up a fortune cookie gazing at it like an unexploded bomb.

"You know they are mass printed somewhere right?" Nico asked eventually when Will still hadn't cracked it open.

Will gave a rueful smile.

"I know. It's stupid. I usually ask them not to give me fortune cookies though. I don't know what it is, they just always seem to come true."

"Well how bad can that be?" asked Nico. "It's always, _you'll find happiness when you least expect it_ or _time waits for no man_. Stupid, meaningless stuff."

"I know," Will said again. "Believe me, I know."

But he didn't open the fortune.

"Here I'll do mine," said Nico.

He grabbed his off the table and opened it up.

"Okay," he said unfolding the paper. "Mine reads: help! I'm trapped in a fortune cookie factory!"

Will burst out laughing and reached for it.

"Let me see that!" 

"Alright it actually says _good news of a long-awaited event will soon arrive_. Stupid and meaningless."

Will grinned.

“I guess you’re right.”

But he still didn’t open it, and when Nico went to clean up the food later that night he couldn’t help but notice the cookie was missing.


	3. Chapter Two - We (never-ever) argue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nico comes to a decision.

 

Nico had been living with Will Solace for almost three days. In that time he’d broken Will’s washing machine, found out Will had an aversion to fortune cookies and, well not much else. Will spent a lot of time out of the apartment which kind of led Nico to question why Will even wanted anybody around unless Nico’s sole purpose was a live, moody burglar alarm. If that was Wil’s logic then he was going to be solely disappointed because Nico was pretty sure Nico would either manage to miss the burglary completely or be too busy hiding under the bed to fight the intruder off.

Will was out again, doing who knew what, which left Nico with time to kill before he went to work. He was supposed to be using the time to come to a decision about whether this thing he had going on was going to be permanent, but he was mostly staring at the wall with an utterly blank mind. He was no longer worried Will was a murderer which he supposed was what the three days had been about in the first place. He hadn't freaked out about the flood, and he let Nico eat his leftover pizza which was a definite plus in a roomate even if Will was a pineapple-person with a questionable taste in toppings. He could always scrape the vegetables off. And most importantly of all, of course, was the fact that living with Will Solace was 100% completely and totally free. He didn't understand why he was still hesitating.

Perhaps it was because Will Solace was driving Nico mad. It wasn't just the mystery of the free room. It annoyed him how untroubled Will was most of the time. He just seemed to breeze through life without a care in the world. Octavian's words about Will being handed things stuck like a sharp object in his mind, uncomfortable and unavoidable. He knew part of his issue with Will's easy-going nature was that he was really jealous about how good Will had it, but now Nico had it that good too. So maybe that wasn't exactly it.

He still had nothing when he had to leave for work. He spent much of his shift pouring out drinks on autopilot and trying to figure out exactly what his problem. Reyna eventually pointed out he was ignoring people with less vitriol but more intensity than usual and asked if there was anything wrong. Nico liked Reyna so he timed his break to coincide with hers and sat with her in the dingy closet that was classed as the staff break-room trying to explain the problem in a way that didn't make him sound like a whiney brat or an idiot for not leaping at the offer the second it had left Will's mouth.

"So, the issue is you don't like him?" Reyna asked.

Nico ran a finger around his coke glass, drawing patterns in the condensation.

"It's not that I don't like him," Nico said.

"Coming from you Nico, not not-liking him is a big deal."

Nico shrugged.

“I flooded his apartment and he responded by buying me Chinese. I’d be a real douche if I said I hated him.”

Reyna gave a half smile of agreement and sipped at her lemonade thoughtfully.

"Why don't you make a list of pros and cons?" She suggested. "I mean as far as I can tell the cons are he annoys you occasionally while the pros could go on for days from rent-free-apartment to Will-Solace is freaking hot.”

Nico blushed and tried to hide it behind his glass. Reyna didn't know Nico had had a crush on Percy. Reyna didn't even know Nico was gay. But he suspected she suspected. He also knew she wouldn't care but admitting it would inevitably lead to conversations he didn't want to have like _ooh do you like_ anyone and the extended version of _Will Solace is freaking hot_.

He thought about Reyna’s suggestion as he made up rum and coke after rum and coke, and eventually came to the conclusion that Reyna was right. Maybe a list _would_ clear things up. So, when he got home, too wide awake thanks to the pounding music and flashing lighting to hope to sleep for at least an hour, he dug an old notebook out of his box of junk and started a list.

_Reasons not to like/want to live with Will Solace._

He was tapping his pen against the paper when he heard the front door close.

Will looked tired but he smiled when he saw Nico.

“Thought you’d still be at work.”

“What time do you think it is?” Nico asked, leaning against his doorframe and watching Will for any fresh clue as to what his deal was.

Will looked at him blankly for a moment. Then blinked as though realising he was supposed to answer.

“I honestly don’t know. Dinner time? Bed time? Time to watch Tangled time?”

“No to all of those.”

Will gave a tired grin.

“I don’t know, Tangled is sounding good right now.”

“As long as I don’t have to hear it. Anyway, I’m glad you’re up. I need an extension on this three days thing.”

“Still think I’m a murderer?” Will asked. “Because I promise this is paint.”

He gestured to a red stain on his t-shirt. It was mostly hidden by his jacket so Nico hadn’t actually noticed it before Will had called his attention to it. Will lifted his jacket to show Nico and accidentally hiked his t-shirt up in the process. Nico tried, and largely failed, to focus solely on Will’s face.

“This is blood,” Will added pointing to a tiny rust coloured stain on his sleeve. “I cut my hand.”

Nico raised an eyebrow at him. Will gave him a surprisingly mischievous smile and then shrugged. 

“Sure,” he said.  He took a slice of pizza from the fridge and disappeared towards his room. At his door _,_ he paused.

“What _is_ the time?”

“Three thirty-two am.”

Will nodded solemnly like this was profound knowledge. He had dark rings under his eyes Nico noticed, like bruises. He wondered how long Will had been up.

“Okay,” he said. “See you in the morning. Or whenever.”

The door shut behind him. Nico stared at it for several seconds and then went back to his list.

_Will Solace is too chilled out about everything._

The next morning Nico woke to singing. He threw his pillow at the wall and then groaned because that, surprisingly, didn’t shut Will up and just left him without a pillow. He crawled out of bed and snatched up a pen.

_Will Solace sings too much._

When Nico eventually decided to leave his room, his found Will sitting at the breakfast bar eating toast.

“You want some?” he asked when Nico shuffled into the kitchen, fully dressed but without a smile.

“It’s too early to eat.”

“It’s one thirty. In the afternoon.”

“Oh, now you can tell the time? But like I said. Early.”

Will gave him a slightly sceptical look but he didn’t argue.

“So, there’s someone coming round to look at the washing machine,” he said. “But I’ve got to go out. If you hear the door can you let them in? There’s money on the counter.”

Nico nodded his agreement, as Will slid off his seat toast in hand.

“You’re the best!”

The door closed behind him leaving an apartment that suddenly felt very empty.

_Will Solace is too cheerful._

_Will Solace takes up too much space._

Nico’s work schedule had been thrown off by his move across town which meant that while he wasn’t working at the bar, he did have to go into the café. Nico wondered if there was ever going to be a time in his life when he didn’t spend the majority of his time making drinks for other people.

Halfway through his shift a group of twenty-somethings showed up, Will in the midst of them. Will seemed surprised to see Nico. He seemed uneasy when giving his order, even unwilling to acknowledge he knew Nico at all. Nico shrugged it off, or tried to, but he couldn't help but be a little hurt that Will didn't want to associate himself with Nico. But whatever. Why should popular, perfect, air-headed Will Solace want anything to do with him? He was nobody.

He just happened to live with Will.

He handed Will's drink over trying to keep the scowl off his face. He turned without comment to the next customer, a tall girl with dark curly hair who hung onto Will's arm like she was worried he would float away if she loosened her grip for even a fraction of a second. Nico felt his heart drop a little more but focused on her order and tried to ignore Will ignoring him.

He was so focused on what he was doing that he only realised the girl had been speaking when Will cut in.

"Lay off him Drew."

Nico turned to Will in some surprise. Will still looked uncomfortable, doubly so when Drew turned heavily lined eyes onto him.

"Why do you care?"

Will glanced at Nico and Nico shook his head a fraction. Will still seemed indecisive but Drew was already grabbing her coffee off the counter and dragging him away.

Nico watched their group out of the corner of his eye. He may not have liked interacting with people much but there was a time when he'd had to be very good at reading them. The dynamics of Will's group were for the most part boring to the point of being so stereotypical they almost came out the other side and became subversive. The group were uniformly attractive and empty-headed: noisy and boisterous they commanded attention and all talked over each other without listening to what anyone else had to say. Drew sat close to Will, practically on his lap. Will seemed unusually subdued. Nico had to wonder if Will was usually that out of place within his friendship group or whether, for some reason, Nico's presence was making him uncomfortable.

It would only be fair if that were true. Will's presence in the cafe was making Nico uncomfortable. He hated the way Will was acting: quiet and distracted until anyone spoke to him directly. And then the mask went on, or fell off perhaps, and Will Solace acted exactly how Nico thought Will Solace would act before he'd met him: smirking, confident and flirty. He hated it because it was so different from the Will who had helped him clean up the apartment, or even the dorky Will who had turned up in facepaint to ask him if he wanted to move in in the first place. 

At home he found his notebook.

_Will Solace makes no sense._

He stared at the list and then screwed it up and threw it against the wall. It wasn't getting him anywhere.

He wasn't sure if he would have confronted Will about the cafe thing, but Nico didn't see him for a full two days after that. Nico was almost starting to think that he was dead in a ditch somewhere, possibly dying from alcohol poisoning, or maybe from an attack of Drew. When he eventually came home it was with a half-empty bottle of vodka and sunglasses on, and Nico was suddenly furious: furious at the way Will just came and went, furious at how Will could apparently wander around drunk at midday without a care in the world, furious that he'd actually been worried about him. He raised an eyebrow as Will put the bottle on the counter and sank to the floor, apparently exhausted.

"Is having endless money really that much work?" he asked scathingly.

Will stared at him for a moment.

"It's actually pretty easy," he said dully. He wasn't fighting back and for some reason that annoyed Nico more.

"I don't get it. I don't get you."

"We've known each other for like five days. Didn't think you'd be the instant sharing, caring, soul-bearing type."

"Not entirely sure you have a soul," Nico snarled and he was no longer sure why he was angry but the fury kept coming. He'd bottled up so much rage over his life that it all came spilling out at the tiniest opening. It didn't matter that there was a tiny voice in his head saying that Will didn't deserve this.

"Is this about the cafe?" Will asked. "Because I agree Drew was out of line but -"

"But you didn't do anything about it," Nico pointed out, "because I'm just someone you need in your house. For some reason. I don't think you've ever actually explained why. Or why Octavian was basically telling me to run."

"That's an overstatement," Will said. The set of his shoulders was defensive.

"How many housemates have you had?" Nico demanded.

"Nico-"

"No, I deserve to know."

"It's not what you think."

"How can it be not what I think? I don't think anything because you don't make sense."

Will sighed and dragged a hand through his hair.

"You don't have to stay. I'm not forcing you."

"Fine."

"Fine."

Nico stormed back to his room, feeling strangely hollow underneath the anger. It didn't matter that there was a voice in his head telling him Will didn't deserve this. It didn't matter that this was a stupid decision, that he'd be homeless, that he couldn't afford anywhere else. The anger didn't stop. He threw his clothes into a bag. It didn't take long. The boxes would be awkward, he'd have to come back for those. It wasn't ideal but Will was out so much he doubted he'd have to see his stupid face again when returning for them.

Nico was still seething when he left his room, even if a more rational part of him was making itself louder demanding to know where he thought he was going. Will was sitting at the breakfast bar with his back to Nico. The sunglasses and vodka sat next to him on the counter. For some reason that bugged Nico and he was preparing to throw open the door never to return when Will turned.

"Do you have somewhere to go?" he asked. He actually sounded concerned and that might have annoyed him more because Will shouldn’t be concerned, he should be furious, arguing back. But he couldn’t answer, and he couldn’t move.

"What happened?" he asked when he could finally move his jaw. His tone was brusque and Will winced. Will moved his hand up to his face unconsciously and then put the ice pack back up to cover the angry looking, purplish bruise tainting the skin under his eye.

"It's nothing," he said.

"I should see the other guy?" Nico asked sceptically.

Will laughed a little hollowly.

"No, I definitely came off worse."

Nico felt the anger draining away and was relieved to find he could let it go. The cyclone of rage had been a little scary; he didn't want to end up like his father.

He dropped his bag to the floor and moved to sit down opposite Will.

"I don't get you Will Solace," he commented as he took his seat.

"Oh I'm your typical rich airhead," Will replied. It was a good attempt at carelessness but didn't quite cut it. Will was shaken up.

"You're a terrible liar," Nico commented.

They sat in silence for a minute.

"Three," Will said suddenly.

"Three?"

"Housemates. Before you."

"That's a lot less dramatic than Octavian made it out to be."

Will shrugged.

"Octavian doesn't like me much," he said, but didn't elaborate.

"To be fair I don't like you much either," Nico said, though he said it lightly.

"I don't know why. I'm pretty awesome," Will said. His tone was light, matching Nico's and his shoulders relaxed somewhat.

"You are kidding right? You are the most annoying person I have ever lived with."

"How am I annoying?"

"I literally made a list," Nico said despite the fact that said list had been something of a bust. "Awful food."

"Liking pineapple isn't a crime Nico."

"It is if you choose to put it on pizza. Okay fine, you are too cheerful."

"I'm too - _cheerful_?"

"Yep it's infuriating. The world really isn't all that great you know."

Will gave Nico a very sceptical look. His eyes were regaining their sparkle and Nico was ridiculously, stupidly relieved about that.

"Is that all you've got? I like pineapple and I'm too cheerful."

"Constant singing."

"Oh come on!"

"Seriously I am so sick of Disney. And that one about the sun. What even is that?"

"No one is ever sick of Disney."

"I am!" Nico said. "I am very sick of Disney. I don't even like Disney."

"Maybe I don't want you as a roomate then. Maybe you should go."

"That's where you are going to draw a line? Me not liking Disney?"

"Yes. It is. Or it would be if I believed you. Hercules? I bet you are a Hercules person. Or maybe Big Hero Six."

"I have seen neither of those."

"Wow you are the worst."

Nico stuck his tongue out at Will and Will grinned.

"I'm surprised you didn't bring up my friends to be honest," Will said musingly.

"They do seem pretty awful," Nico agreed.

"Mitchell isn't all bad. And Cecil and Lou-Ellen are cool, I just don't end up seeing much of them. Really it's only Drew that's a pain."

"If you don't like her -?"

"She's a terrible person. I know that. But I can't just ditch her."

"You are way too soft Solace. Please tell me you didn't get punched over her."

Will laughed.

"No, it wasn't over her."

"But you won't tell me what it was over right?"

"It's nowhere near as exotic as whatever you are imagining. I confiscated the vodka off of Cecil and he punched me."

"This is a guy you just described as cool."

"I don't think he was actually going for my face. He was trying to snatch the bottle back but he was pretty drunk and his aim sucks when he's sober. He was very apologetic."

"Your life is weird," Nico told him.

"But it's not boring."

"No I can't imagine endless partying will ever become repetitive or boring," Nico said snarkily.

Will gave him an odd look, but just shrugged.

"Well I'm getting food. You want anything before you go?"

"Go?" Nico asked, more than a little confused. "I don't have work tonight. It's Tuesday. Though considering your track record with days and time I'm not surprised you don't know that."

It was Will's turn to look confused. He looked kind of adorable and Nico's stomach did odd things, like it was attempting Olympic gymnastics.

"You said you were leaving?"

"I've changed my mind," Nico said while trying to make it seem like this wasn't a big deal at all.

"Oh," Will said.

"Really?" he added.

Nico shrugged uncomfortably.

"It's been pointed out to me that I'd be pretty stupid to turn down free rent. On reflection, it's probably a good point."

"Besides," he said, "if I stay I might get to witness you getting punched for weird reasons. That could be interesting."

Will smiled but it was the small, unconscious one that was rarer than a blue moon or the Hades mythomagic figurine. It made Nico stupidly glad he'd agreed to stay.

"You know offering you this place was never supposed to be some big mysterious thing," Will said thoughtfully as he got up to throw the ice pack in the sink.

"I prefer living with someone else. Percy mentioned you needed somewhere and since I'm not paying anything for this place it seemed unfair to make you pay."

It was an explanation but it also offered more questions, like why Will didn't have to pay rent. Still it was a start.

"I can't believe you wrote a list about how annoying I am," Will added as he picked out a take-out menu and chucked it at Nico.

"It was a thoroughly valid exploration of your personality and limits."

"Can I see it?"

"Absolutely not."

"That seems unfair," Will said. "Maybe I'll have to write a list of all the ways you annoy me and then refuse to let you see it."

"I'd like to see you try," Nico replied. "I'm not annoying in the slightest."

Will laughed. His eyes were really blue. 

"Sure Neeks," he said. "If you say so."


	4. Chapter Three - Look At My Dreams

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nico reflects on his dreams, and gets some unwelcome news.

Nico had been living with Will Solace for one and a half weeks. It had been _interesting_. He got a lot of time to himself since Will was often out, which was good, but Will had also made him watch Big Hero Six which was - actually it wasn't that bad though he'd told Will otherwise. He still thought Will was a complete air-head and was both jealous and scathing of the fact Will didn't do a single thing with his life but he had to admit that despite that Will could be kind of fun. Nico had even been able to cut back his hours at the cafe, since he no longer had to work so much to make his rent. That meant he suddenly had more down-time and not much of an idea of how to fill it. Though in theory this should have been nice, it gave him time to think. And thinking wasn’t much fun at all.

The situation with Will, nice as it was, wasn't going to last forever and he had to start to face big questions. Like what was he going to do with his life? He'd been so focused on survival - firstly rather literal survival, and then trying to make enough money to stay in his crappy apartment with Leo and eat - that he hadn't had time to stop and reflect. Now he had too much time and it was making him remember of all the plans he'd had when he was a teenager, all the things he had wanted to do. They seemed impossible now. It was unlikely he could save up for college even without paying Will anything. Perhaps he should just enjoy the luxury he had with Will and be resigned to the fact he would probably die no more than a high-school dropout who briefly got a lucky break.

That wasn't a particularly happy realisation so he turned on the TV. There was nothing on but it did fill the apartment with some noise. He suddenly thought he got why Will was so insistent on having someone living with him. Nico didn't mind being alone, but the apartment felt _lonely_ , and he didn't like that at all.

The weak part of him wanted Will to come home. He'd even settle for watching one of the films Will had marked as being essential viewing. But Will was out, probably drinking and having a good time with his actual friends, while Nico was stuck at home. His only friends were either travelling across the country with their girlfriend (Leo), or studying at Stanford trying to become a kick-ass laywer with their girlfriend (Jason). Nico was the odd one out in so many ways.

Perhaps Nico should try and find a boyfriend. That was always Jason's suggestion. Since Jason had accidentally found out about his thing for Percy, he had made Nico's happiness his personal mission. Nico usually point blank ignored Jason's suggestions, mostly on principle, but maybe this time Jason had a point. Maybe then he'd be less lonely, and he'd stop focusing on the blue of Will's eyes and the freckles on his nose and shoulders. After all Will was a) technically his landlord, b) probably straight and c) possibly in the clutches of the Drew who was terrifying and beautiful and not someone Nico could ever even hope to contend with.

No matter which way he looked at it, Will was unavailable to him. And that sucked. But he couldn’t let Will turn into another Percy. When Nico fell in love he fell hard, and he’d been hopelessly pining with Percy for _years_. It had been a living nightmare. He’d have to move on before the observation that Will was ~~beautiful~~ hot became anything more than that.

The programme, though it was useful for filling up empty space, was beginning to grate and Nico was briefly contemplating trying to figure out where the remote was for the tv when he heard a ringing sound that he finally recognised as a doorbell. He and Leo had not had a doorbell. Leo had briefly created a doorbell-like contraption but it had been one of his more unsuccessful projects and after a small domestic fire that had made them public enemy number one on their floor, they both decided anyone wanting their attention could just knock.

Nico remained on the sofa and hoped whoever it was would just go away. Getting up, opening the door, explaining that actually Will wasn't in seemed like too much effort when not answering would get across the exact same message: Will not found, try again later. Then the doorbell rang again and he was irritated enough at their persistence to pick himself up and slope slowly to the door to give them a passive aggressive piece of his mind at how they clearly could not take a hint.

He spent a moment fiddling with the latch and then finally got the door open to find Percy holding up a bottle of wine with a delighted grin on his face.

"Nico!" he said as though Nico was his favourite person in the world. "Knock, knock it's wine o'clock."

Nico looked at him in what he hoped conveyed his complete and utter disgust at that sentence. He glanced at his watch.

"It's two-thirty?"

"And you've only just gotten up?" Percy asked, casting a critical eye over Nico's outfit which made Nico remember with acute embarrassment of the ground swallow me whole type that he was still in his pyjamas and that they were the old batman ones that were falling apart.

"I work nights," Nico answered waspishly. "You remember? You always ask me for discounted drinks?"

"Well anyway you’re up now and I brought you a house warming present," Percy said, holding up the wine again like it was an offering to the gods.

"I don't drink wine."

"Oh well I guess I'll keep it then," Percy said. "It's the thought that counts, right?"

Nico raised an eyebrow, but he finally moved aside a fraction of an inch in a largely unwilling invitation for Percy to come inside. It felt weird inviting someone else into Will’s apartment. He then had to wonder if he'd feel like that if he were inviting his sister inside, or Leo, or Jason. He then decided he didn't want to go down that particular line of thought because it might lead to comparisons between sea-green eyes and bright blue and he wasn't sure which would come out on top, or even which he wanted to come out on top.

It felt even weirder leaving Percy alone in the living room while he went to change his clothes. If inviting someone into Will’s space felt odd it felt even more wrong to leave Percy alone even for a minute or two. Nico thought he might have set a speed changing record, though he did fall over trying to pull up his skinny jeans, and then was back out into the living room to see Percy sitting at the breakfast bar. He looked perfectly happy like he'd been sitting there for days but Nico couldn't be entirely sure he hadn't just been peering in all the cupboards; Percy did seem oddly jittery. But then he’d been acting off outside too so maybe there was something else going on.

"Nice place you got," Percy said. “Though I didn’t know you liked the Kardashians?”

Nico glanced at the TV and shrugged. There was no point trying to explain because Percy had already moved on.

"Glasses?" he asked, gesturing to the wine.

Nico gave him an odd look but handed Percy his mug from the draining board. Percy gave it a slightly suspicious look probably born from Nico's infamous washing up abilities but it either passed some kind of test or he figured the alcohol would kill off any diseases because he poured himself a full mugs worth of wine.

The feeling that there was something not quite right got a little sharper. Percy wasn't usually a huge drinker: Nico was the mess and Percy by comparison was reasonably put together and a paragon of virtue and good life choices.

"Did you want something Percy?" he asked pointedly.

"I was just coming to check how you were doing."

Percy also didn't usually come and check on Nico. Sure, there were the occasional texts and party invitations and requests to come hang out with him and Annabeth and the rest of Percy's gang that Nico usually declined. But in person visits were rare these days. In person visits when it would be just the two of them were avoided at all costs, because almost inevitably one of them would mention something that would jog memories and Nico would remember exactly why he was a high-school dropout working two jobs to survive and Percy was going to graduate college two years late. And those remembrances were never fun. No, interactions between Percy, Nico, and (to lessar extents) Jason were, and should be, carefully mediated.

"Why? Will's not a murderer is he?" Nico asked.

"No of course not, why would you think - did you find out something weird about him? Does he keep photographs of dead people in a drawer or -"

"No," Nico said flatly.

"Oh. Well I guess you're probably alright on the murder front then."

"You were the one who set this up," Nico reminded him. "Shouldn't you know whether he's a murderer or not? He's your friend."

Percy shrugged.

"I don't know him all that well. He's more of a friend of a friend. You know Connor? He's Connor's brother’s friend. Anyway, he always seemed pretty decent. Bit distracted but alright. Still can't complain, right? I've definitely done you a favour here."

Percy’s babbling came to rather an abrupt stop. He sipped the wine like he was dining in a fine restaurant instead of sitting at a breakfast bar drinking a cheap red out of Nico’s zombie mug, and cast his eyes around the apartment contemplatively.

"Wouldn't mind living somewhere like this," he said with an oddly rueful smile. Nico fidgeted a little and wondered if there was a point to all this. He vocalised that thought and Percy stopped looking contemplative to look rueful instead.

"Actually, there _was_ something I wanted to ask you."

He took another sip of wine, then seemed to think and downed half the mug. He closed his eyes, as though that might make talking easier.

"Okay, I need you to be honest about something,"

"Uh-huh," Nico agreed without any enthusiasm at all. 

"Please Neeks, this is really important to me."

Nico groaned, but nodded with less animosity than he'd usually show.

"Get on with it then."

Percy nodded and obviously steeling himself, he reached into his pocket. He pulled out a velvet ring box and for a second Nico felt like time had frozen. And then everything was happening so fast but he couldn't quite figure out what _was_ happening. There was a rushing in his ears and his heart was beating in double time. Percy opened up the box and showed Nico the ring: silver with a bluish green stone that was roughly the colour of Percy's eyes.

"It's not much but it was all I can afford," Percy was saying but Nico was having trouble hearing him, the words kept fading in and out like on an old, untuned radio.

"- Annabeth and I just love her so much Nico."

Right. Of course. Annabeth. How could he have thought, even for a moment, that Percy was proposing to him?

"We're going to graduate this year-"

Percy had been with Annabeth for years now. Of course this was the next step. How had he not seen this coming? He should have prepared himself. He should have known that this would feel like a sledgehammer to his chest, would drag up all those old poisonous feelings of desperate love and hated attraction.

He realised Percy was staring at him.

"Huh?"

"Do you think she'll accept?"

Percy actually seemed worried. Worried that Annabeth would say no, worried about Nico's opinion of their engagement. Nico wanted to scream but he managed a small, unconvincing smile that he hoped Percy would attribute to his purported lack of social skills.

"Of course she'll accept. She's crazy about you," he said.

Percy's face broke out into a huge grin and his shoulders finally relaxed and he seemed far more like his usual self. He did finish off the wine though.

"I don't know how to do it. Maybe to the Empire State? She loves architecture and it was our first date."

Nico nodded along. He wished he could down the rest of the wine without looking crazy.

"Anyway, what I really wanted to ask you was whether you'd be my Best Man?"

"Me?" Nico asked hollowly.

Percy held up a hand quickly to prevent any other protests.

"I'm asking Jason too, so you wouldn't have to do any of the organising, interacting with people, stag-do planning stuff."

"You have so many friends," Nico tried.

"I want it to be you. You and Jason. You were the most important people in my life once but we've kind of drifted apart. Maybe I have an excuse with Jason cos' he's the other side of the country but we live streets apart Neeks and I haven't seen you properly in forever. If I marry Annabeth it will be the start of a new life for us. But I want that new life for my family too. I want you and me to have a new start and a new life. You’re family Nico. I need you to be there with me."

"Did you prewrite that speech?" Nico asked because he was kind of an ass. Then he sighed.

"Sure Percy. But I'm not in charge of the strippers."

Percy burst out laughing.

"I'll tell Jason that's his job."

“And I refuse to do a speech.”

“Noted.”

“And I –“

“I get it, no responsibility whatsoever I _promise_. Now can you just enjoy the moment?”

Nico couldn’t enjoy the moment but he pretended anyway, and managed to get rid of Percy ten minutes later by acting like he needed to get ready for work. It was a lie - it was actually his day off - but Percy brought it and left in good cheer. Nico shut the door firmly behind him and sank down onto the floor.

He was over Percy. He was. He'd mostly accepted they were never going to be together. The leftover traces of attraction were faint, just enough to make things like answering the door in his pyjamas embarrassing. So why did this hurt so much?

When Will came back, Nico was still slumped on the floor, staring at the ceiling. Will looked down at him but didn’t comment, just went about putting groceries away. Nico sat up then to watch because there hadn’t been any food in the house since he’d moved in and they’d both been living off takeout, so it was weird to now see Will handling fruit even if it was followed by a bottle of tequila and a second label-less bottle of unidentified liquid.

“Don’t drink that one,” Will said gesturing to it.

Nico murmured his acknowledgement of that.

“My best friend is getting married,” Nico commented. He wasn’t usually one for sharing, or small talk, but the words tumbled out of his mouth before he could stop them.

“That sucks,” Will said sympathetically.

“Does it?” Nico asked in some surprise.

“I don’t know,” Will answered. “Does it? You don’t seem super ecstatic about the whole thing.”

“I guess it just dragged up the past. We haven’t been in touch properly for a while. It made me remember – things.”

“Remembering is the worst,” Will agreed. “How about getting drunk instead?”

“I work in a bar. It’s kind of killed my desire to go to them in my free time.”

“We’ll stay in. We can play the mythomagic drinking game.”

“There’s a mythomagic drinking game?” Nico asked, interested despite himself.

“I’m sure we can come up with something.”

Less than a quarter of a bottle of vodka later and Nico was learning that, against all expectations, William Solace was a real light weight. He also sucked at mythomagic though there was a chance because the alcohol had him distracted and surprisingly giggly. Will giggling might have been even more intoxicating than the alcohol, so Nico ended up drinking even more so he could pretend the red of his cheeks was from all the vodka.

"So I'm going to put my Empusa on your Muse."

"You can't do that," Nico said.

"You can't do that in regular mythomagic," Will tried. "This is drinking game mythomagic. Totally different rules."

"Not buying it Solace."

"Not all of us spent all out childhood playing this dumb card game, cut me some slack."

"You never played?" Nico asked, surprised. Maybe his opinion was a little skewed but he'd assumed everyone on the entire planet played mythomagic because it was the world’s greatest game ever, no exceptions.

"Nah," Will said, good naturedly downing the shot Nico shoved towards him in punishment for his rule-breaking. "I was a cool kid. Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh were my thing."

"So cool Solace," Nico said with a grin.

"I want to play you at Pokemon!" Will said. "I bet I'd win then. I had a shiny Arcanine. It was my favourite."

"My favourite is Hades. My sister got him for me -" he cut himself off and frowned: even drunk he never usually ended up talking about Bianca.

Will noticed and pursed his lips.

"I don't like it when you frown," he told Nico very seriously. "We should totally turn that frown upside down. With ice cream maybe. Do you like ice cream? Of course you do everyone likes ice cream!"

"I'm lactose intolerant," Nico lied but broke down giggling at the scandalised look Will gave him.

"I'm kidding. Do we have ice cream?"

It turned out they didn't have ice cream so Will made him put on his jacket and they walked to the ice cream parlour on the corner of their street.

Will had what was possibly the world's biggest sundae and Nico told the server he didn't care what he had as long as it was drowned in chocolate sauce.

"Are you sure you can eat all that?" Nico asked Will, staring at the mountain of ice cream buried under sliced bananas, chocolate sprinkles and a rainbow avalanche of sprinkles.

"Totally. Isn't that chocolate sauce going to make you sick?"

"No way. I'm a pro at this. I used to get sundaes with my dad whenever he was home for the weekend. I've been in training."

Will giggled and stole the cherry from the top of Nico's ice cream. Nico let him. He wasn't a big fruit person.

"My thing with my mum was doughnuts. She loves them. We used to make them into sandwiches."

"I don't know if that sounds disgusting or amazing," Nico commented.

"Amazing. I promise you. I'll make you one one day."

"I'm going to hold you to that Solace," Nico said brandishing his spoon at him in what he hoped was a threatening manner but probably just looked very drunken.

"I promise," Will insisted. "One hundred per cent. But _you_ have to watch all those films on the list."

Nico groaned.

"Come on!" Will protested. "You didn't hate Big Hero Six."

"I really did."

"You are a liar, Nico Di Angelo. And I can't believe you never saw them as a kid? And how has no one corrected this nightmare before now?"

Nico shrugged.

"I guess not everyone is as pushy as you!"

Will pulled a face at him and Nico's stomach rolled. He pushed the ice cream away from him. This was all wrong. He was supposed to be getting over Will, not going on drunken ice cream trips with him.

It was growing dark when they eventually left, and there was a chill in the air. Nico walked close enough to Will to feel the warmth of his arm, and he blamed the alcohol on the giddy feeling that gave him. Either the ice cream had helped dampen down the effects of the vodka, or Will was reaching the contemplative stages of drunkenness, because he was quiet as they walked, eye line distant. He caught Nico watching him and gave a small smile.

"I used to want to work in that building over there," he explained. "I don't know what it actually is but I used to like the way the windows always caught the sun."

"I used to want to study history," Nico admitted. "I don't know what I would have done with it. I had all these stupid, unrealistic plans. I was going to go back to Italy for a few years, I was going to travel the world and set up a mythomagic online duelling tournament and - ” he broke off realising how stupid he sounded.

"You still could?" Will said. "It's not like your reaching retirement Neeks."

Nico just shook his head. They were nearing their building, Nico looked up and found their window. They'd left the lights on and he'd never seen anywhere look more inviting.

"Forget about it," he said. "Let's watch a film."

"Ooh Hercules!" Will said, instantly distracted and Nico felt a little mean for manipulating him.

While Will put the film on, Nico microwaved popcorn. He sat down and put the bowl between them, deliberately distancing himself from Will.

The film was okay but not good enough to stop him sneaking glances at Will. He hated the way his heart thudded when he looked at him. He hated how he thought Will was beautiful. He hated that he'd had so much alcohol and he knew that tomorrow he'd hate himself even more for the hangover.

But it was surprisingly hard to care.


	5. Chapter Four - And Look at the Two of Us

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nico gets a shock when he finds a stranger in the kitchen.

Nico had been living with Will for three and a bit weeks and in that time Will had never invited anyone one else round to their home. It was therefore a surprise when he woke up one morning and found a stranger in the kitchen. The stranger was wildly attractive, even with sleep messed hair. He was also shirtless.

Nico stared at the stranger. The stranger stared back.

"What up," the stranger said by way of greeting.

Nico, not always rude but also definitely not a morning person, continued staring blankly in total incomprehension.

Will came out of his room then, thankfully not shirtless because Nico definitely would not have been able to deal with that, but looking incredibly rumpled and not at all with it. Will stopped and looked between Nico and the stranger. For some reason he seemed mildly alarmed. He must have thrown on clothes very quickly because his sweatpants were inside out and his tshirt was back to front. His hair was a complete mess too, more so than usual like he'd been running his hands through -

And finally it dawned on Nico what was going on and he couldn't believe he had been so slow but he at least managed to stop himself blurting _oh my god_ out loud.

"Oh god," Will said.

Nico gave him a look, and Will shook his head frantically looking unbelievably panicked.  The stranger was oblivious as he poured himself a glass of water. Nico was busy freaking out because stranger, _male_ stranger and wait did that mean Will –

He blamed his next words on his jumbled thoughts and lack of ability to think clearly.

"Who is this honey?" he asked.

Will's expression might have been worth it, he looked so confused: for a split second he was the picture of a deer in the headlights. Then he cottoned on to what Nico was doing.

"Oh god," he said again and Nico wasn’t entirely sure if he playing along, commenting on Nico’s plan, or simply still panicking about the situation.

The stranger looked at Nico in some surprise then over to Will. Will closed his eyes. He didn't have to do much acting to seem like he was simultaneously freaked and wanting the ground to swallow him whole. Nico thought that was probably a good thing given Will's acting ability.

"You didn't mention this last night," the stranger commented. He seemed amused more than anything else which was lucky because Nico was belatedly realising this gambit could have gone a whole other way.

"You didn't mention me?" Nico asked and he was actually beginning to enjoy his role.

"I-" Will said but his voice gave out.

"Are you kidding me Will Solace?" Nico demanded. "I thought after your brother’s graduation-"

"Can you stop bringing up my brother’s graduation?" Will snapped and Nico thought he might have to revise his previously formed opinion of Will's acting skills.

The stranger looked between them.

"Maybe it would be better if I -"

"And who are you?" Nico demanded, rounding on the unreasonably attractive person standing in the middle of their kitchen. He realised his own jealously of the stranger - the tall, muscular, beautiful stranger who looked nothing like Nico - might be leaking into his tone. The stranger recoiled slightly, and Nico thought he might have overdone it.

“I’m gonna go,” the stranger said.

He went back into Will’s bedroom. Neither Nico nor Will had moved when he returned with a shirt and shoes on this time. He gave Will a final glance as he left and Nico felt a hot spike of unreasonable jealously in his stomach. When the door shut, Will slid to the floor.

“Oh god,” he said.

“You’ve said that,” Nico commented. But he did take pity on Will, mainly because Will looked like he regretted everything, and went and got him a glass of water. After some thought he also took a box of painkillers out the drawer.  

“I’ve never done that before,” Will said as Nico handed him the water. “That’s not me.”

He sipped the water silently for a minute or two. Nico sat next to him and tried to reconcile his own muddled thoughts.

“Thank you,” Will said eventually. “I don’t know if I could have dealt with that on my own.”

Suddenly he smirked, looking more like himself.

“Though I am sorry about whatever happened at my brother's graduation.”

Nico began laughing and it helped distract him from the spiky feeling in his chest.

“You don’t remember? You left with Dave. I was heartbroken.”

“Dave? I don’t remember Dave.”

“I can’t believe you don’t remember! Honestly it’s Christmas 2013 all over again.”

“Hey, you said we were on a break!”

“Well we sure weren’t on a break with Dave,” Nico yelled. “Not the first time. And not the second time after my father’s funereal!”

“Babe, come on I would never let Dave come between us!” Will protested. “Screw Dave!”

“You did,” Nico retorted. “That was the problem!”

“Well how about that time at your grandmother’s?” Will countered in a dramatic sitcom yell.

“How about you two shut up for once?” Octavian shrieked through the walls.

Will rolled his eyes but started laughing and Nico made a rude gesture in Octavian’s direction, and wondered why such a fancy building had such thin walls.

“You know I didn’t even know his name,” Will said after the laughter had died down leaving a hollow space.

“It’s not the worse thing you could have done,” Nico said, though privately the jealous part of him decided he would rather Will was confessing a murder.

Will shook his head.

“I should have at least known his name.”

“How drunk were you?” Nico teased gently.   

“I don’t know. I don’t even think I was that far gone. I was just –“ he shook his head and shut down in the way he sometimes did. It reminded Nico of the fortune cookie thing, that alluded to some mysterious past.

Will tipped his head back, and though it hit the wall with a sharp thud he didn’t wince. He looked so ragged and torn.  Nico wasn’t sure he liked seeing Will so down.

“Hey at least he was hot right?” he said gently bumping his shoulder against Will’s.

Admitting Will’s one-night stand had been hot was the closest he’d ever come to admitting aloud, or even hinting that he was gay. Jason had found out accidentally, and the only good thing about that was that Nico had never actually had to say the words. It felt strange vocalising even something as innocent as the other guy’s attractiveness - even to Will who had just slept with him - but Will didn’t seem to even register the meaning behind the words, just burst out laughing.

“Are you suggesting I’m shallow?”

“I’m saying you could have done worse.”

Will bit his lip to stop himself laughing and nodded.

“Alright,” he said. “I’ll give you that.”

Nico was pretty sure Will wasn't ready to think about what he'd done and he knew he definitely wasn't ready to think of the implications of what Will had done (because Will was apparently single and not at all straight and-) so he suggested a movie. Nico was going to let Will choose one of the ones of the list since he obviously needed cheering up but Will surprised him by letting him choose. Nico was surprised at the sudden power, and instantly worried that whatever he picked would be an awful disaster. There were a couple of films on there he knew he'd like, but he had no idea what Will enjoyed other than the endless array of Disney movies. He wasn't sure he was ready to bare his soul to Will even if it was only the tiny part of his soul that was in charge of things he liked.

So to circumnavigate all of that he chose a horror movie at random.

"Slasher Killer Blood Revenge of the Darkness: 3?" Will questioned.

"That's not what it says," Nico protested.

"It might as well," Will said. He shrugged. "Whatever, I like a good Slasher Killer Blood film."

Nico raised an eyebrow at him.

"Sure it won't be too scary for you, Disney boy?"

"I'll cope. I guess this is standard for you Death boy?"

"I actually starred in one of these once."

Will laughed.

"No you didn't," he said but he didn't sound one hundred per cent sure.

For the first ten minutes Will was annoyingly calm, which Nico took as a challenge. Usually horror films didn't bother him and it would have been a walk in the park but he'd managed to pick a genuinely frightening psychological thriller. Still he refused to break before Solace.

He tried very hard not to grin in triumph when Will paused the movie but Will just went to get another glass of water. Despite his claims he hadn't drunk all that much the night before, Nico thought he might be just a bit hung over.

Though Will was right behind him, though he could hear him moving about in the kitchen, though all he had to do was turn and he'd see him, the second Nico was left alone on the sofa he began to silently panic.

He jumped when Will asked him if he wanted anything and tried to cover it up be reaching for a cushion.

"Nico?"

"Coke."

Neither of them had bothered to open the curtains and the light that tried to sift through the gaps made strange shadows in the corners of the room. Which he was absolutely not concerned about. Not at all. He'd survived hundreds of horror movies that had left Jason, Percy, Leo, even Reyna a wreck.

"Here," Will said handing Nico his coke.

Nico drew his feet up onto the sofa in case there were monsters hiding under it, and took the drink. Will had brought back a thing of m&ms and Nico grabbed a handful as he restarted the film.

He hated that Will seemed so relaxed about everything but then, almost as soon as the movie was playing again, Will jumped. His water went flying, and he bumped into Nico who knocked the m&ms all over the floor. Nico was feeling smug until something on screen leapt out of the shadows and he actually let out a scream that he almost immediately stifled.

Twenty minutes later and Nico was really beginning to regret his choice. He was now sitting close enough to Will to almost be on his lap, though Nico wasn’t sure whether he’d moved closer or Will had. The characters on screen were exploring an abandoned house, like morons, and the music was doing the thing and Nico was trying very hard to maintain his composure because Will was right next to him and –

Will screamed, Nico screamed and somehow they had both grabbed at the other one and Will was so close, his arms around him.

The banging sound that had scared both of them so thoroughly continued and almost at the same time they identified it as the door. Will let go of Nico to run his hands through his hair, laughing nervously and self-depreciatingly. He paused the film, which was actually a relief.

“You’re stronger than you look Neeks,” he commented as he stood to get the door.

Nico managed a small, tight smile and tried to get his heart rate down from the million miles an hour it currently felt like it was doing.

“I’m coming,” Will yelled at the continued banging.

“Five dollars on Octavian complaining about something,” Nico said.

“Done.”

He wrenched open the door, Nico twisted around on the sofa to watch. Instead of Octavian (there went his five dollars) there was a slim guy with curly brown hair. He was kind of like the boy next door version of the model Will had slept with.

“Cecil.”

Cecil came in, eyes immediately clocking onto Nico with a worryingly huge grin.

“I was coming to check on you,” Cecil said sloping over and hauling himself up to sit on the counter.

“You disappeared last night,” he said helping himself to a banana out of the fruit bowl. “And you haven’t been answering your phone. Lou Ellen thought you were dead.”

“But you weren’t concerned?” Will asked.

“Nah I didn’t think anyone could bring themselves to hurt your pretty face. Who’s that?”

“Nico. Nico this is Cecil. We’re friends. It’s unfortunate but we’ve known each other too long to do anything about that now.”

Cecil looked Nico up and down with the trace of a smirk and then glanced back at Will.

“So you’re not dead?”

“Evidently.”

“Did you have fun last night?” Cecil asked with an even bigger grin.

Will fixed him with a look, but if anything Cecil’s smile only got bigger.

“You want me to leave you two in peace? Only it’s Kayla’s birthday thing? You remember?”

Will’s eyes got very wide.

“Oh no.”

“We didn’t think it was like you to forget. That’s why Lou put money on you being dead or at least kidnapped. Drew said distracted, I guess she was closest.”

“Oh god, okay wait there, I’ll be like thirty seconds.”

Will dashed off leaving Nico alone with Cecil. Seconds dragged as Cecil gave Nico another once-over but this one far less friendly.

“So,” Cecil said leaning forward and putting his chin in his hands as he stared at Nico.

“You must be pretty interesting to make Will forget his sister’s party?”

Nico wasn’t sure how to respond to that, or the sudden seriousness and intensity of Cecil. He may have been jokey and teasing around Will, but the second Will had vanished it was like a switch had flipped. Now suddenly scrappy, easy going Cecil seemed almost intimidating.

“I’m not –“ Nico began but he wasn’t sure where he was going to go with that so it was almost a relief when Cecil interrupted him.

“Don’t hurt him,” Cecil said in a low voice. “He’s been through enough. Whatever this is don’t  – I have to say that shirt looks a lot better when it’s the right way round.”

Will, who had come out of his bedroom properly dressed and was responsible for Cecil’s abrupt change in manner, paused only to flip Cecil off before grabbing his keys.

“I’ve got to go,” he told Nico. “Kayla’s my sister. I’ve never missed her birthday, I can’t believe -”

“Well you have one, or was it two, drinks last night." Cecil quipped. "That’s anyone else’s equivalent of a bottle. We’ll tell her you were too hungover –“

“You won’t do anything of the sort,” Will threatened as he pulled Cecil off the counter and towards the door.

“I could tell her the truth.”

“I could murder you in a way that would be undetectable by most forensic specialists.” Will suggested cheerily.

“See you Nico,” he said without changing tone.

And then the door shut and Nico was alone.

He wasn’t scared. He totally wasn’t scared. But he did open all the curtains and turn all the lights on to banish the shadows. Then he microwaved some pizza because he couldn’t be bothered to cook, and put on cartoons because they were fun and light and didn’t involve dungeon-demon-shadow-monsters.

If he kept busy he wouldn’t have to think. So, he cleaned up the m&ms and washed up and washed his bed sheets and managed to stay away from thoughts of Will (and demons) until he ran out of chores.

Will was _gay_.  And apparently, if his willingness to sleep with some random guy was anything to go by, single. That –

That changed things.

Before he’d viewed Will as completely unattainable. He’d been resigned to another drawn out period of secret longing that would ultimately turn into pain as Will decided to get married and ask Nico to be his best man.

Now –

He didn’t know what to think. His chest felt funny, butterflies were multiplying in his stomach. Will was - and that meant there was a chance - but how could Will ever want someone like Nico? Will was beautiful and perfect and gorgeous and kind and -

He was spiralling. He could feel himself spiralling.

He clenched his fists and told himself not to be stupid. He shouldn’t be falling apart over some guy. Especially not Will.

There were other things to think about. Like Cecil’s very distinct personalities and mild threats, like how he had to figure out what to get Reyna for her birthday next week, like the possibility of demi-gorgon-demon-shadows creeping under the door and murdering him while he slept – no not that last one.

Nico was kind of relieved when Will returned because it forced Nico to confront the fact that they were going to be continuing living with each other and so he really couldn’t spend all his time on edge. It was also getting dark and Nico was afraid. He’d never been afraid of the dark before.

“I spent that entire meal terrified someone was going to sneak up behind me and murder me,” Will admitted as he threw himself down onto the sofa next to Nico.

“I was fine,” Nico lied.

“All the lights are on and you’re watching cartoons.”

“Unrelated.”

“So you’re going to refuse to watch the fluffy and light Tangled with me? Because obviously you don’t need it and you hate Disney.”

“I’ll stay to keep you company,” Nico said magnanimously.

Will smiled in response and Nico’s heart fluttered automatically, even though there was something not quite right about it. Will’s smiles were usually bright as the sun, even the small ones, but this time it didn’t quite meet his eyes.

“Did you make it to Kayla’s thing in time?” Nico asked.

“It had already started. But Kayla wasn’t mad,” he paused, gave a rueful smile. “She should have been.”

Will shrugged and Nico thought his mind was somewhere else.

“You want me to put fluffy and light on, or are you going to do it?” Nico asked trying to cheer him along but he thought his own voice was starting to sound kind of hollow. He didn’t like how worried Will looked.

“I’ll do it in a sec,” Will said. “But there’s actually -”

He took a deep breath. Nico was starting to realise why he was so on edge. Will’s uneasiness was familiar because it was the same uneasiness Percy had shown right before he’d admitted he was proposing. Nico couldn’t take any more bad news. He couldn’t think of what Will could possibly want other than maybe kicking him out, maybe the one-night stand was going to move in instead and –

“I need to ask you something. And I need you to hear me out because it’s a really strange request and I know that but –“

Will stopped and bit his lip.

“Okay I know this sounds crazy,” he said. “But Cecil kind of thinks you were the guy I went home with last night -”

“That actually explains a lot,” Nico said.

Will gave a tired little smile.

“Sorry for whatever he did. The point is –“

“I don’t care” Nico blurted out. “That you slept with him or that he’s a guy or that –“

Will was looking at him strangely now.

“That wasn’t what I was going for,” he said and he looked closer to actually laughing now. “But thanks.”

Nico nodded and had to press his lips together to stop anymore outbursts because if he thought he could delay whatever was coming then he’d keep talking until the sun imploded and the universe died.

“Nico I need you to pretend to be my boyfriend for a bit. Please? The other’s all think I slept with you anyway and I swear you’ll never have to _meet_ any of my friends and I’ll keep Cecil away but please can I just tell them we’re dating?”

Will’s words came out in a tumbled rush.

“Nico?”

Nico realised he hadn’t responded. He tried to unglue his mouth, remember how to make his tongue work, how he formed words, figure out what he was going to say because how did he respond to that?

“Okay,” he said.


	6. Chapter Five- You Took Me to a Restaurant Off Broadway

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nico and Will try and score free desert.

Nico had been living with Will for one month. Strangely living with Will as Will’s pretend boyfriend was no different from living with Will as random acquaintances thrown together because they both knew Percy. Will still spent most of the time out, Nico still got a dull ache in his chest whenever he saw him, and they still spent the rare times they were in the apartment together watching films, playing video games and occasionally engaging in a mythomagic duel.

Still despite the fact that not much had changed, Nico still began to think he was stupid to agree to the situation. He tried to dampen it down but knowing he was Will’s fake boyfriend gave him false hope, like fake boyfriend would translate into real boyfriend and they’d fall in love and live happily ever after. He felt light, his chest all a flutter whenever he thought about the possibility and he knew sooner or later he was going to get hurt.

But he couldn’t call off the pretending or fake break up without giving Will an explanation, and he wasn’t sure he wanted to do that either. There wasn’t anything he could conceivably say that would explain his sudden change of heart other than the truth. And he’d rather anything - walking over hot coals, seeing his dad again, hell even telling Percy the truth about how he had once felt - than admit he might have anything resembling feelings for Will.

He came home from a stupidly long shift and with the hollow feeling in the pit of his stomach he got whenever he thought of Percy and his engagement, or about how alone he was. Reyna had noticed and offered to come back with him but Nico had declined. It wasn't that he was the kind of person who liked to wallow in his own misery, but he did kind of want to wallow in his own misery for a bit.

There was a stack of books on the table. The orange post it stuck to the top of the stack blended in with the front cover but Nico eventually noticed and plucked it off.

_Don't give up. I didn't._

He frowned, then realised that the stack were history textbooks. One very generic others more specific. He picked one up and flicked through it in a shocked daze. Each book was new. He shuddered to think how much they must have cost altogether.

When Will got back, Nico was curled up on the sofa with a cup of coffee, reading about the fall of the Roman Empire.

The more cynical side of Nico, the side that wasn't used to people presenting him with thoughtful gifts wanted to berate Will for spending all the money on him. The side that was crushing heavily on Will freaking Solace overruled.

"Thanks for the books," he said instead.

Will shrugged it off like it was nothing, but then Nico supposed the probably insane amount of money they had cost probably was insignificant to Will.

"I was in the store anyway and I saw them. They're on the reading list for one of the history classes Lou-Ellen takes. She likes History. She's weird like that."

"Will-" Nico began but whatever he was going to say died in his throat. To his horror his eyes felt hot.

"You go to college?" he said instead.

Will laughed at the obvious disbelief in Nico's voice.

"Obviously," Will said. "What did you think I do?"

"I don't know? Spent money? Invented new cocktails? Let your friends punch you in the face at parties?"

"That's how I know Percy? We go to the same place?" Will sounded incredibly confused.

"Oh shut up," Nico said, but he was smiling. 

Since Nico spent most of his time at work, or trying deseperately not to fall too deeply in love with Will, the moments when he actually had time to relax all he wanted to do was watch whatever channel Will had left the tv on (since the remote had a habit of vanishing into thin air). What he didn't want to do was party-plan an engagement thing for his first love and his first love's fiance. Percy had been so excited Nico couldn't exactly say no to helping, but he had kind of hoped his complete lack of enthusiasm and interest would have cued Percy into realising that Nico really didn't want to take part. Percy was completely oblivious and  it only took three phone calls about fancy finger food, two different shades of aquamarine and whether it was skinny ties or fat ties that were in at the moment for Nico to want to throw his phone into the nearest body of water.

If it wasn't Percy calling then it was Jason who of course knew about Percy's engagement but also knew about Nico having a slight thing for Percy and so not only did Jason call with stag do questions, information and chat, but he also called to make sure Nico was okay. And Nico would insist he was okay, however untrue that was, because insisting he was okay was a better option than telling Jason that actually he had somehow agreed to  being the fake boyfriend of his sort-of land lord who was beautiful and funny and might make Nico's heart feel funny.

All in all Nico, was really beginning to dread the sound of a ringtone.

Will had spent more time out in the last week and Nico had deduced from Will's stress levels and the number of books that had suddenly appeared on many of the surfaces around the apartment, that Will was studying for some kind of test. The last he'd seen of Will he'd been sleep walking towards a textbook, mumbling about proteins. Nico had steered him back towards his bed and forced him to sleep. It was a strange divergence from Will's usual laid-back nature and apparent lack of interest in studying to the point where Nico had been unaware Will even attended college, and Nico kind of had to wonder what prompted the change. 

He was surprised when Will came through the door looking more cheerful than he'd been in a little while, and surmised whatever Will had been prepping for must be over.

"I'm ordering food," Nico said. "You want?"

Will took a moment to process the question.

"Let's go out," he replied.

Nico stared at him, heart thudding, and wondered if too much studying had somehow made Will lose his mind.

"We are," he pointed out a little shakily. “Right?”

Will blinked at him.

"To eat. Let's go out to eat. There's this place I want to try."

That made more sense but it didn't stop the heavy feeling in his chest. Still maybe it would do him good to get out. And being on a legitimate fake-date/food-quest/dinner-with-the-guys thing with Will was a valid excuse to ignore his phone.

"Sure," Nico said, trying not to sigh too much.

Taking a taxi was a strange novelty, but Will didn't seem to think too much of it. He was oddly quiet and distant as they moved through the city, curiously detached from the crowds of people on the pavements. Nico was starting to worry in a general nonspecific way about the not-date and more specifically about the fact Will looked reasonably presentably in a dress shirt and Nico looked nothing of the sort in an old tshirt. What if Nico didn't like the food? He'd have to remember not to order spaghetti because although reasonably confident in his ability to twirl it round his fork in private, it was the very last thing he wanted to attempt doing in front of Will Solace. He'd have to -

He'd have to remember it wasn't actually a date. He wasn't entirely sure what it was: he was pretty sure Will hadn't thought about it at all and that he himself was now completely overthinking it but -

But Will was reasonably famous. He wasn't Kim Kardashian, or that singer guy or anyone of the other famous people that were very much in the public conscious, but he was recognisable enough that in a crowded restaurant at least one person was going to recognise him. And then they'd seen him with Nico and -

And the fact he was fake dating Will suddenly seemed real in a way it really hadn't seemed real when they'd only ever interacted in the apartment. He glanced over at Will but he was still distracted, lips moving soundlessly. He suddenly became away Nico was watching him and gave a self-deprecating smile.

"I think I messed up question six," he said by way of explanation and then sighed.

"Sorry. I'll stop thinking about it. I know I must have been pretty annoying this last week."

Nico shrugged.

"I didn't really see a difference between that and your usual level of annoyingness," he said.

Will smiled and it was a real smile this time and it made Nico's tummy do the thing, and his heart feel all funny, and his head scream at him that he was a moron who was in completely over his head.

"Do you mind if we walk the rest of the way?" Will asked. "I think I need some fresh air."

He did look pale and wan. Nico assumed it was all the late nights studying and/or partying (there had briefly been a bottle of Jack Daniels in the fridge which had then disappeared by the next day) that had taken their toll.

He nodded and vowed not to make Will's unhealthy habits his business because Will wasn't really his boyfriend and he didn't need to get involved.

Will yawned as he paid, apologising to Nico and the driver.

"We could have stayed in," Nico pointed out, as Will stifled a second yawn.

"You looked like you needed a break," Will answered with a shrug. "You kept staring at your phone like it was an unexploded weapon of mass destruction and I thought maybe you'd like the distraction."

"And the reason we've driven halfway across the city, instead of just ordering take out and watching one of those films like we always do?"

"Vitamin D?"

"It's dark."

"You can actually get vitamin D through streetlamps it's this new science thing, latest research-"

"You're an idiot Solace."

"You love me," Will said, obviously very automatically but it didn't stop Nico's heart stopping, restarting at tens times it's normal rate and then juddering to a stop again.

"I don't," he lied. "Not in the slightest."

"Well as your fake boyfriend I'm kind of offended," Will replied easily. "And as your friend I'm also kind of offended. As the person who is letting you stay in my house rent free, whatever I guess."

"We're friends?" Nico asked with some surprise, realising half a second too late that it was a potentially offensive and generally quite clueless thing to say.

"Aren't we?" Will asked, suddenly looking worried in that kicked puppy dog way he sometimes had.

"Yeah," Nico said hurriedly. "Yeah I guess we are."

Will still looked a little taken aback by Nico's response and Nico was too busy trying to play catch up with the conversation because the painful spot in his heart was still caught up on the careless use of the word love.

Luckily, they'd reached the restaurant which forced a change in subject. Will's good humour seemed to have returned, even if he still looked more like Nico's sun-deprived, sleep-deprived self, than his usual glowing model-like picture of health.

The waitress showed them to a table. There was a candle and a single rose in a vase. It brought back the nerves and when he took a menu he hand was shaking. He was sure the waitress noticed, though luckily Will was checking his phone and so was oblivious. The waitress gave Nico a smile and a secret thumbs up and then disappeared leaving the two of them alone.

"Cecil asked after you," Will commented.

"And you told him -"

"I told him it was none of his business, yeah. He's still angling to meet you again but I've been making excuses. You've had two family emergencies and a dental appointment this week alone."

"Wow my life sure does suck."

"My sincerest sympathies in this troubled time."

"Your support is truly appreciated, I don't know what I'd do without -"

"Wine menu?" the waitress asked, having magically appeared back at their table.

"Please," Will said.

"No that's alright," Nico said.

Their waitress looked between them, proffering the menu with an uncertain expression like she thought their date might be about to collapse. Will noticed and sent Nico a quick smirk. Nico had to try and stop himself giggling. He gestured that Will take the menu.

"You're not drinking?" Will asked as he flicked it open. 

"I'm not drinking wine."

"Can I order for you?"

Nico thought that on balance getting drunk on a pretend date with someone who he was majorly crushing on might not be the best of ideas. He also wasn't sure he liked the way Will's eyes were shining. Well actually that was a lie, he really did like the way Will's eyes were shining and that was probably the reason he ended up saying yes.

He was pretty sure Will ordered him some kind of incredibly potent cocktail, but the name wasn't familiar which, since he worked in a bar, was kind of worrying.

"If you have to carry me home it will be entirely your fault," he warned.

"I won't carry you home," Will answered. "I'll leave you here."

"I don't think there's a universe that exists in which you'd be able to bring yourself to do that. You're too much of a mom."

"A mom?"

"Yeah. I bet you're the mom friend. You're totally the mom friend."

"I'm friends with Cecil. _Anyone_ would end up the mom friend. It's a survival tactic."

"Sure thing Solace."

Will was a paragon of maturity and so absolutely didn't stick his tongue out over the top of the menu as their drinks arrived.  Nico's was, as he'd suspected, huge and brightly coloured and had several straws, a ridiculous paper umbrella, lots of fruit and a plastic pirate sword and pretend parrot.

"What is this?" Nico asked with some suspicion as it was handed to him. Will, who was on half a glass of wine like a civilised person completely cracked up and tried to steal a strawberry. Nico slapped his hand away.

"You don't eat fruit," Will protested.

"I do when it's imbued with alcohol."

"Remind me to address your eating habits."

"I will definitely not."

Will smirked but he suddenly seemed distracted. Nico followed his line of sight and saw a reasonably attractive guy with dark hair, and a pretty girl who was uncomfortably reminiscent of Annabeth sitting down at a table nearby. It was uncomfortable in a vague way as he was reminded of the fact Percy was engaged, but he couldn't quite work out what was bothering Will.

"An ex?" he asked.

Will laughed quietly. "No."

"Ex-one night stand."

"No, shut up."

"Well if you feel threatened we are a million times cuter than they are, and we're not even really a thing."

Will really did laugh then.

"The girl kind of reminded me of my sister. A blonde version. I guess she's not actually that similar but - never mind. You're right. We're cuter."

"Exactly. And the waitress is pretty into us. I bet we could score free desert."

Will finally looked away from the other couple with a grin.

"Alright," he said. " _Honey_."

Nico sometimes wondered why he didn't seem to have a working filter that could block ideas like trying to score free desert by taking his already stressful not-date to a whole new level. He blamed the cocktail. 

"You really don't have to drink all that," Will said watching him with some amusement but also traces of concern. "You don't have anything to prove, I just wanted to see if it really would come with a parrot."

"It did," Nico said flicking at the plastic thing. "And besides this is surprisingly good. You want?"

Will raised an eyebrow but he leant forward to catch the spare straw. He was close enough for Nico to count every freckle, see distinctly every golden eyelash, see the flecks of darker blue in his irises. His breath caught.  

"You're right actually," Will said, grinning around the straw. Nico smiled back automatically. It made his cheek muscles hurt.

"If you ordered my drink, I get to order your meal."

Will shrugged, eyes dancing.

"Sure thing love."

"You're not allergic to anything are you?" Nico asked, as he picked up a menu.

"I'm allergic to you being a douche with my meal options."

"I'm not sure I believe you. You'll have to show me a doctor’s note."

"Surprisingly I don't carry one around with me."

"Pity," Nico said. "Guess I'll take my chances and hope I don't kill you.

"If I collapse you could try mouth to mouth," Will suggested with a way too mischievous grin. Nico nearly choked on his drink.

Nico ordered Will some kind of rice three with five little drawings of peppers by it in revenge, and himself a carbonara because he panicked and forgot the spaghetti rule. The waitress twinkled as Nico spoke both of them, and promised it wouldn't be long as though she was prepared to personally threaten the chef to make it happen.

"She's totally in love with us," Will said.

"We're acing it," Nico said. "Look at your not-sister and not-Percy. They're way behind."

Will's grin was like a thousand candles.

If Nico's heart hadn't been racing so hard he could almost have forgotten that they were faking a date. Being with Will was so easy. The conversation never faltered and even the silences were comfortable as long as Nico didn't forget himself and start getting lost in the cerulean colour of Will's eyes. Even then he could just pretend he thought they were losing sight of their free desert and that he was upping their game, so it wasn't as concerning as it could have been.

Will was doing surprisingly well with the spicy rice and insisted it wasn't hot at all. Nico was convinced that was just because he didn't want to give Nico the satisfaction, because his cheeks were beginning to redden. He looked impossibly beautiful in the flickering light and Nico found himself smiling more than he had in a long time.

"So," the waitress said as took Nico's plate.

"How long have you two been going out?"

"Oh, not long," Will said.

"This is our first official date," Nico confirmed.

"Aww," the waitress said. "That's so cute. You two are so brave."

"I don't need to be brave. Will gives me all the strength I need."

Will was out of the waitress’s line of sight which was lucky because he was trying not to crack up and was indicating with his eyebrows that Nico might be laying it on a bit thick.

"I'm so lucky to have met Nico," Will said smoothly as the waitress turned to collect his plate. He was impressively straight faced.

"I don't believe in love at first sight but he just kind of captured me you know?"

"We met on the street, just kind of bumped into each other. Will was a moron in face paint. But he was an endearing moron."

"Aww babe, you're too kind."

"You two are just the sweetest. Tell you what, since it's a special occasion how about desert? On the house."

Will gushed his thanks and made eyes at Nico. Nico didn't have to act like he was a) thrilled about free desert or b) melting under Will's gaze and the waitress, obviously believing their lie that the attraction was two sided wandered off to fetch a desert menu.

Nico chose a chocolate gateau and Will opted for some fancy tart thing. Nico insisted his free desert was way better and Will told him he was incredibly wrong so they ended up sharing in an attempt to try and find an ultimate winner. Nico was half convinced their accidental cuteness during desert would be enough to get their whole meal for free, but Will insisted on paying anyway.

Out in the cold air, Nico found he couldn’t walk in a straight line, and kept bumping into Will. Eventually Will looped his arm through Nico’s. Nico turned to him in surprise.

“I’m slightly concerned you’re going to wander into traffic,” Will said in explanation.

Nico thought about protesting that he was just fine and not drunk at all, thank you very much, he only had one and if he _was_ drunk (which he wasn’t) it would be Will’s fault for ordering such a huge cocktail. But he didn’t, because he liked being close to Will.

“Let’s go dancing,” Nico said.

Will burst out laughing.

“You really are drunk!” he said.

“And you really are the mom friend,” Nico told him accusingly.

“I thought you’d hate dancing,” Will said musingly.

“Oh I absolutely do,” Nico said, managing to suppress  _but I don’t really want this fake night to end_ which just proved he wasn’t too drunk after all.

Will was still laughing.

“Then maybe we should go home,” he said.

“You’re boring.”

“We can try and figure out how to make that cocktail that’s got you feeling like you want groove.”

“Less boring.”

“I bet you have fancy drink making skills you can show off.”

“I don’t work at some five star restaurant, Will,” he said. But cocktails sounded nice so he allowed Will to take them home.

As he was ~~stumbling~~ walking through the front door, he saw a blue envelope thing on the matt under his feet. He picked it up, squinting at the writing but the words were blurring so he shoved it in Will’s direction.

“That cocktail must have been really lethal,” Will commented but he took the proffered note.

“It’s from Percy. He says he wanted to give it to you in person but guesses you weren’t in or were avoiding him in revenge for all the calls. I think it’s an invitation to the engagement party.”

Nico’s mouth suddenly turned sour and the pleasant, floaty, tipsy feeling vanished leaving behind the feeling he was being pulled down by the weight of the world. Suddenly he was unreasonably angry, at Percy for ruining his perfect not-date, at Percy for getting engaged, at himself for not being able to just move on. Will was looking at him with concern in his eyes and Nico felt a rush of affection nearly choking him.

“If I’m your fake boyfriend then you have to be mine.”

“I mean yeah – I think that’s how it works?”

“No, I mean you have to be _mine_. Come to Percy’s engagement with me.”

Will raised an eyebrow. He still looked concerned but he nodded.

“Yeah,” he said. "Okay, sure.”


	7. Chapter Five- You Got a Heart of Glass or a Heart of Stone

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hazel comes for a visit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm going to run out of Rent lyrics for chapter titles so am branching out to Pet Shop Boys entire catalogue.   
> Today's title is from West End Girls.

Nico had been living with Will solace for one month and one day. He had grown used to waking up in his new room, had even put up a couple of posters and tried to make it his. He wasn’t used to waking up with his head pounding and his mouth dry and barren as the Sahara. He lay in bed for a long time whimpering to himself but eventually he dragged himself up, step by careful step, propelled by the need to find painkillers and water.

He vaguely remembered going to a fancy restaurant on a pretend date with Will and several attempts to recreate Nico’s pirate cocktail. He also thought he remembered inviting Will to Percy’s engagement but he hoped that was part of the strange dream he’d had about a zebra and a line of life sized toy soldiers.

When he stumbled out into the kitchen he saw Will sitting neatly in one of the armchairs.  Nico was about to question how Will looked so awake when a dark head popped up and suddenly Percy was grinning at Nico. Nico nearly dropped the glass he was holding.

“Afternoon Neeks,” Percy said. “Is my face really that frightening?”

“Don’t call me Neeks,” Nico snapped back automatically.  

He got his water, and then sat down near Will. Something about having Percy around felt wrong, and Nico felt weirdly protective of Will, even though that made no sense because he was pretty sure Will could handle himself and Percy wasn’t exactly a threat.

But Will’s body language wasn’t saying that. Perhaps it was just the horrendous hangover he probably had and was doing very well to hide, but Will seemed uncomfortable. He was stiffer than normal, and when he spoke it was almost like he did when he was around Drew, like he thought he was on show.

“Turns out we’ve got a couple of biology classes together,” Percy said gesturing to Will.

“And you never noticed before now?” Nico asked somewhat waspishly.

“He’s hardly ever there,” Percy said with a shrug not really picking up on, or perhaps simply just ignoring, Nico’s tone. “Still gets amazing grades though, not sure how he does it.”

He gave Will a big, friendly grin and Will smiled back automatically, wan and so far removed from the smiles he gave Nico that Nico was simultaneously smug and immensely pleased, and a little worried.

“Anyway, so I came over to invite him to the engagement. Thought if he was going to he’d be able to drag you out the house if you suddenly decide you don’t want to do the party thing. Besides I might need a biology tutor at some point, so seems like a good idea to make friends with someone so good they don’t need to turn up right?”

“I’d tutor you anyway,” Will said quietly. “You don’t need to bribe me.”

Nico had never felt uncomfortable around Percy before. Actually, that was a lie, he had felt uncomfortable around Percy pretty much constantly for several years but that was because of his crush. But now his skin felt like it was itching and all he wanted to do was pull Will away from Percy’s clutches.

It probably wasn’t Percy’s fault: he was being friendly and cheerful and there probably wasn’t any malice in the invitation. Knowing Percy he really was just interested in getting to know Nico’s housemate. Percy had been lax on things like that before and it had cost them both, so Nico did appreciate that Percy was at least trying to learn from his mistakes. But couldn’t he do it somewhere else, to someone else who wasn’t Will?

When Will’s phone went off, Nico used it as an excuse to gently encourage him to leave the room. With an apology, Will left to take the call in his room and Nico was left with Percy. There was a moment of blissful silence and then Percy ruined it.

“Are you okay Nico?”

“Hungover. Fed up of interacting so soon after waking up. Completely uninterested in answering that question. Otherwise I’m coping.”

Percy pulled a face.

“Just coping?” he asked. “You used to be like my fun, annoying kid brother. You didn’t stop talking – it drove me up the wall. Now you get annoyed if I’m around for more than five minutes and you barely say a thing. What happened?”

Nico stared at him in complete disbelief.

“What happened?” he hissed. “You got my sister killed!”

 Percy blanched but steadied himself.

“You have to know I regret that!” he said pleadingly. “Every day Nico, and I swear if I’d known –“

“It’s not good enough!”

Nico was standing before he realised it, the glass of water tumbling to the floor.

“You ruined my life and I still-“

Despite the waves of anger and despair Nico could feel choking him, he managed to silence the next words. _I still loved you_ , he wanted to say. _After everything I was still in love with you and you didn’t deserve it. You didn’t even notice._ He snapped his jaw shut, clamping his teeth together to stop the words forcing their way out along with his anger.

Percy looked kind of small all of a sudden.

“It was a mistake,” he said hollowly. “It was a stupid mistake. And now I can’t make another mistake and lose you too Nico, can’t you understand that?”

Nico just glared at him, holding his gaze.

“I wish you’d died instead of her,” he told him, words sharp and dagger like.

Percy went even paler. He looked like he was fighting back tears, but he was resigned too like he kind of expected it. He didn’t bother arguing or trying to fight back, just left leaving Nico to wonder whether it was just the anger and rage he tried to keep locked away talking, or whether he’d really meant what he said.

It just went to prove, really, that he and Percy really didn’t do well when they were alone together.

He felt too edgy and vulnerable after his fight with Percy to want to see anyone, even – maybe especially – Will, so he confined himself to his room in a self-imposed exile and wondered if there was a special place in hell reserved for people who told someone that they wished they were dead.

To his surprise, given Will’s usual interest in his health and wellbeing, Will left him alone. Maybe he’d heard a part of the fight or had just picked up on the bad vibes, but he seemed to sense Nico needed space for which Nico was eternally grateful. He left food out for Nico and then disappeared off out, presumably to one of his friends since Nico thought classes were probably over for the day.

Jason texted him telling him he’d heard about his argument with Percy and asking if he was alright. It was a stupid question, so Nico ignored it. He probably shouldn’t have because the next person to text him was Hazel who didn’t waste time with questions and just announced she was coming to visit for the weekend.

No matter how much he might hate the rest of his family, he couldn’t say no to Hazel. So he settled for scolding Jason for telling on him to his baby sister, and then grumpily gave Hazel his new address. Then he wondered if maybe he should have asked Will first. But then Will was always insisting this was Nico’s place too. So if Nico wanted to bring someone round, surely that was fine?

He posed the question to Will the next day.

“You have a sister?” Will asked.

Nico sighed.

“She’s called Hazel. She’s actually technically my half-sister. But yes. She won’t be any trouble.”

“You know I don’t’ care what you do,” Will said in response. “It’ll be cool to meet her.”

And that’s when Nico finally put together living with Will and inviting Hazel over and got Will was going to meet Hazel. Hazel was going to meet Will.

“Oh no,” he said quietly.

“What’s that?”

“Nothing.”

Nico went to meet Hazel at the station. She gave him a huge hug as soon as she saw him, wrapping her arms around his neck. She might have been tiny - one of the few people he knew smaller than him - but she _was_ strong.

“Can’t breathe Hazel,” he muttered.

“I’ve _missed_ you,” she replied, but did loosen her grip.

“So you said you’d moved. Does that mean I don’t get to see Leo?”

“He betrayed me by going on some extended roadtrip with Calypso,” Nico said.

“That’s pretty awesome.”

“He’s a traitor,” Nico insisted. “Made me find somewhere else to live with a total stranger.”

“And what’s this total stranger like?” Hazel asked.

Nico sniffed.

“Tolerable I suppose,” he said, turning away so Hazel wouldn’t’ see the blush he could feel creeping into his cheeks.

“Tolerable?” Hazel asked. “Isn’t that your version of my new best friend?”

“Tolerable,” Nico repeated, but he couldn’t stop a smile.

Hazel filled Nico in on her life as the two went back to the apartment. She was still working hard, still went riding on the weekends. She was still with Frank which Nico was glad about. Frank was a good guy and he’d been a little worried that the two might find the distance hard when Frank, who was a year older, went to college.

Nico in turn was supposed to tell her about his life. He glossed over the fight with Percy even though it felt like a lead weight in his chest, the fact that he was fake-dating the person who he might have slightly fallen for, and the fact he’d been stupid enough to invite Will to the engagement party as his pretend boyfriend. Instead he told her about Reyna’s birthday because it satisfied the obligation to tell Hazel stuff while simultaneously being completely harmless.

Hazel was full of questions when they got to the apartment. Her eyes were so round they were practically saucers, probably because the last time she’d come to visit him he hadn’t owned plates but had had custody of several interesting times of mould.

“Wow, Nico,” Hazel said as he let her in. “This place is really nice. You’ve moved up in the world!”

“It is pretty nice,” Nico agreed. “The apparently endless supply of take out left overs is the best bit. Will always orders way too much food for himself.”

“Is Will around?” Hazel asked as she dumped her rucksack on the floor and threw herself onto the sofa. “I want to meet him.”

“He’s just some guy I’m living with,” Nico said. “What’s so interesting about him?”

“You tell me,” Hazel replied eyes far too knowing.

Nico gave her an unimpressed look but dutifully knocked on Will’s door and called his name. Wil didn’t answer so Nico assumed he was out. Nico turned to report this to Hazel and found her kneeling by the TV.

“I’m assuming these are Will’s,” she said with a slight grin. “He’s got a good taste in films. I love the Princess and the Frog!”

Nico gave a half shrug as Hazel wandered around the room, poking and investigating things. Nico hadn’t realised how much had changed since he had moved in. He remembered how clinical and impersonal the place had seemed. Now there was stuff everywhere, Will’s and his. It startled him how settled he’d become, almost without realising. It was one thing to have posters up in his own room, but even with Leo, his stuff had remained firmly in his room confined to space that was solely his own.

“Nico?”

“I’m fine,” he told Hazel. “What do you want to do tonight?”

“Movie marathon?” Hazel suggested.

It really wasn’t the worst thing she could have come up with so Nico agreed readily enough and suggested she order something to eat, handing her his card.

“Do you think Will wants anything?” she asked.

Nico shrugged.

“He eats most things. Just order double of whatever you want. Oh, and if you’re getting Chinese he doesn’t want fortune cookies. He’s got a thing about them.”

“Noted.”

“He likes pineapple but not pepperoni.”

“Okay,” Hazel said with a slight smile.

“His favourite at the moment is dim sum.”

“Got it,” Hazel said, her grin suddenly very wide. Nico felt his cheeks heating up again.

“We get food a lot,” he said defensively.

“I didn’t say a thing,” Hazel replied innocently.

Nico huffed and told her he needed a shower. He escaped to his room, leaving her to sort out food and a line-up of movies, and lay on his bed, staring up at the ceiling. He wondered if Hazel knew. She was certainly perceptive enough to pick up on it, and was eerily good at telling who would likely end up with who a skill that only Piper surpassed her in. But he’d thought he’d kept his feelings for Percy well hidden. He knew at some point he was going to have to tell her he was gay, and it would be far easier admitting his feelings for Will than Percy. But somehow it didn’t quite feel right.

 _Soon_ , he promised himself. _I’ll tell her soon_.

He took a shower because otherwise Hazel might question why his hair wasn’t damp and realise he’d just been ducking out from the conversation. The warm water felt good, relaxing him when he didn’t realise he’d been tense, and by the time he’d come out and re-dressed Will was sitting next to Hazel, chatting cheerfully. They had cartoons on but neither were really paying attention as Hazel told Will about one of her classes at school. If he hadn’t known better he would have thought they were old friends with how comfortable they looked with each other.

Seeing Will interacting with Hazel didn’t feel weird in the way that seeing Will with Percy did and he left them talking, taking his time making his coffee. He tried not to think about how his heart felt too big for his chest, or how he felt all warm and kind of fuzzy.

“What did you order?” he asked Hazel as he sat down on the other side of her.

“I didn’t. I mentioned I wanted to try cooking pizza from scratch and Will said we could try. You don’t mind right?”

“Whatever you want Hazel.”

Hazel grinned.

“We’ll need to go out for ingredients,” Will commented.

“You cooking though,” Nico said. “Are you sure that’s a good idea? Might burn the building down.”

“And as tragic as that would be,” Will answered, “think how much that would annoy Octavian.”

Nico laughed. He could perfectly picture Octavian’s face as he came home and saw smoke pouring out from under their door.

“Sold,” Nico said. “But shotgun not going out.”

The pizza took a ridiculously long time to make and Nico could have complained that it would have been quicker to order it. But Hazel was having fun and he had to admit he was too. It didn’t matter that their pizzas went horribly wrong and Nico could practically hear his mother yelling at him from beyond the grave about his cooking skills. Nico liked hanging out with Will and Hazel. The only hard thing was trying to act normal so Hazel wouldn’t keep giving him side-long glances with accompanied by mysterious knowing little smiles that put Mona Lisa to shame. He hoped he was imagining it but as the pizzas were cooking and Will was getting out plates, Hazel suddenly attacked.

“So Will,” she said as she finished telling him about Frank. “Do you have a girlfriend?”

“Uh no I – “

“Boyfriend?” Hazel asked sweetly. Nico glared at her but Hazel feigned ignorance.

“Not at the moment,” Will said.

Hazel gave him a big grin.

“I’m sure you’ll find someone soon,” she said.

Nico intensified his glare. Hazel stuck out her tongue behind Will’s back. She looked like she was going to say something else and Nico was considering tackling her to the ground, and whether Will would notice, when the timer rang and Will left to get the pizzas out.

“What are you doing?” Nico hissed.

“Taking an interest in his life,” Hazel said loftily but she couldn’t quite keep the mischievous little grin off her face.

“I can take an interest in yours too if you like. You usually complain though.”

“Hazel –“

“Do you have a girlfriend? Boyfriend?” She knew. She definitely knew. He could just admit it here and now, but it was too difficult with Will only in the kitchen and he just shoved her arm instead.

“Hazel!” he snapped.

Hazel burst out laughing and Nico tried to hush her. “You’re such an annoyance,” he told her irritably and shoved her down into a chair.

“Now behave. Quit grilling Will about his love life.”

Hazel pulled a face but dutifully pretended to zip her lips shut. Nico gestured that he’d be watching her as Will came back with their dinner, and sat down trying to pretend like everything was normal.

He got through dinner without embarrassing himself and Hazel surprised him by keeping quiet on the topic of romance and they talked instead about what they were going to do tomorrow for Hazel’s only full day in the city. Hazel wanted to go to a museum and Will suggested an exhibit on the greek gods.

“Since you love mythomagic so much,” Will said with a grin. 

“That sounds pretty cool actually,” Hazel said. “I’d like to see that.”

“I’m up for it,” Nico told her, licking ice cream off his spoon.

“Great. Now you promised me a movie marathon and that I could pick,” Hazel said. “You haven’t seen Princess and the Frog yet right?”

Nico let Hazel sleep in his bed and crashed out on his floor. Hazel dropped off almost immediately and began snoring gently. He found it much harder to get to sleep. He blamed it on the hard floor but it could possibly also have been because his heart was jumping all over the place in his chest. Every time he closed his eyes all he could think about was Will.

 _You’re in way too deep_ , he told himself but he got the feeling his warning was way too late.

The next morning he found Will helping Hazel with some biology homework, the two sat at the dining table together. It was weirdly domestic but also weirdly not all that strange a sight. Nico poured himself cereal and ate as Will explained some minutiae of the circulatory system.  

He left to get ready and when he got back he found Will was watching TV.

“What are you up to today?” he asked, going over to sit on the edge of the armchair.

“Nothing in particular,” Will said. “I was going to catch a movie with Lou Ellen but she cancelled last minute and everyone else is busy.”

Nico knew what he was going to say a split second before he said it and it still managed to be a surprise when the words left his mouth.

“Well maybe you could come with us?” he suggested. Will looked up at him.

“It was supposed to be your day with Hazel,” he said.

“She won’t mind. You’re her new BFF, she’s totally in love with you.”

Will laughed.

“I’m just that good,” he said. “Charm the dads, flowers for the mums, become BFFs with the little sisters.”

Nico laughed too.

“You’re full of yourself Solace,” he told him.

Hazel came out of the bathroom then, hair brushed and up, and saw the two of them. She grinned but didn’t say anything as she pulled on her jacket.

The Greek gods exhibition was pretty good. Hazael was enjoying it anyway. She jumped from statue to vase to painting, taking pictures with her camera and stopping at random points to sketch in the little notebook she kept in her pocket. She’d barely spent two seconds with them, just kept running off in a way Nico was starting to think was deliberate since it felt less like he’d come here with Hazel and a lot more like he’d come here with Will.

They wandered along, side by side, close enough that their hands occasionally brushed. Will didn’t move away though and Nico didn’t think he could if he wanted too, it was like Will had some kind of gravitational force that kept pulling Nico in. When Will stopped to admire a statue, Nico stopped to admire Will admiring the statue.

“Kind of looks like you,” Will commented.

“It looks nothing like me,” Nico retorted. “Who is it anyway?”

Will looked around for a plaque.

“Hades, Lord of the Dead,” he read with the beginnings of a grin.

“Great,” Nico said. “Thanks a lot.”

“Suits you, Death Boy,” Will teased lightly.

“He doesn’t look like me!” Nico protested shoving Will lightly in the arm.

“Well okay you’d have to put in some more hours in the gym to get those arms,” Will conceded.

“Are you insulting my figure Solace?”

“Not at all,” Will said. “You’re figure’s fine with me.”

Nico looked at him in surprise and was even more surprised when he saw Will’s cheeks were suddenly tinged pink. He was hit once again with how freaking beautiful Will was and wondered if he could constantly say things to make Will blush just so his cheeks could stay that rosy. Nico kind of wanted to kiss him and he realised with horror he’d actually leant in slightly and this wasn’t supposed to happen and Will’s eyes had gone wide and this was all wrong and –

He was incredibly relieved when Hazel pinged up by their sides and said that she wanted to visit the gift shop. Nico answered automatically and he’d never know what he said, or how he’d managed to speak at all when all the breath felt like it had left his body.

He’d been expecting Hazel to corner him about Will all weekend so when she began packing things back up in her rucksack he wasn’t especially surprised (even if he also wasn’t thrilled) when she brought him up.

“So Will’s pretty great,” she said. “You got lucky on the housemate lottery.”

It was tame compared to what she could have said so Nico gave her an honest answer instead of brushing her off.

“Yeah, I guess I did.”

“Nico?”

“Yes, Hazel?” Nico asked with a sigh. She was fidgeting, looking surprisingly unsure.

“You could do worse.”

Nico’s heart skipped ten beats. He swallowed and even though Hazel was accepting and sweet it was still insanely difficult to speak. He managed to nod mutely and Hazel smiled back, nodding too. She turned to leave the room but Nico called her back.  

“Hazel?”

She looked at him but he didn’t have the words so he hugged her and hoped she understood.


	8. Chapter Seven - What Have I Done to Deserve This.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nico practices stalking and finds out something new about Will.

Nico had been living with Will solace for five weeks and he was starting to think he finally got Will. All the things he’d found mysterious in the beginning – the constant absences, the need for having someone else in the apartment, - all of that could be explained. Far from being shallow and uninterested in hard work as Nico had initially thought, all those times Nico had thought he was out in clubs he was usually just in the library studying. As for needing someone else in the apartment, Nico got that too. He preferred having Will around; it made the space feel less empty. He liked coming in to see Will with about five textbooks open and spread out around him, or sprawled on the sofa watching tv. Coming home to Will felt more like coming home than opening the door to find an empty apartment.

Five weeks in he was also beginning to accept he was pretty much doomed in terms of avoiding a particularly painful crush. Still despite Nico nearly kissing him in the museum, Will seemed mercifully oblivious. Maybe he’d just thought Nico was doing his part as Will’s public boyfriend. However Will had rationalised it, he hadn’t brought it up and Nico certainly wasn’t going to.

So, despite the fact he was slowly falling desperately hard in love and working his hardest to ignore it, Nico was surprisingly content. The only thing that gnawed at his conscience was the fight with Percy. He felt guiltier and guiltier day by day. He was still angry, that wasn’t something he could let go of in a day however much easier that would make his life, but he regretted telling Percy he wished he were dead. He wished Bianca wasn’t dead, but no matter how much he resented Percy’s part in everything, he didn’t wish Percy had taken Bianca’s place.

His feelings towards Percy were messy but even through the misery and the pain and the anger, Percy was his friend. It was annoying but it was true.

He’d asked Hazel what she thought he should do as they were waiting for her train. She’d been straightforward as ever. She’d asked him if he regretted it and he’d admitted he had. _So say sorry_ , she’d said.

It was good advice. It was what he knew he should do. But because he was him, he’d been putting it off. He was worried he’d finally pushed Percy too far, that he’d lost his friend. The thought scared him more than he’d expected and he began to realise that the final shreds of his crush might have finally loosened their hold on his heart.

Eventually, one afternoon when he was alone in the apartment, he received a text from Jason talking about some detail of the engagement party – something to do with dolphins and doughnuts and Percy had the worst taste seriously how had he ever been attracted to that guy – and Nico realised he’d been seriously out of the engagement loop. The thought made him pause and he wondered if maybe he was out of the wedding.

Not that he could really blame Percy if he was.

It was enough to shock him into opening up a text to Percy, cringing slightly when he saw the last message between the two of them had been Percy wishing him a happy Christmas two years ago.

_Dolphins Jackson really?_

Then with shaking hands.

_I’m sorry. Am I still your best man?_

Percy didn’t reply for long enough that Nico began to accept he’d screwed up big time. Then in quick succession came a defence of dolphins, an entire essay about this amazing cake place who did these really awesome cupcakes in the shape of famous buildings and wouldn’t those be perfect and did Nico want to come cake tasting with him, and finally a confirmation that of course he was still best man and did he have a preference on tie colour. The overload of information was peppered liberally with exclamation marks and emojis. Normally Percy’s over dramatic texting style would have bugged Nico.

Instead he just smiled and sent back his customary one-word replies to all Percy’s questions feeling a little bit lighter.

Since Will said he would be in the library all day – which was no way to spend a Saturday – Nico had decided to do the food shopping for him. It was awful, migraine inducing experience. While he was in the store the weather had switched from a cold but dry late autumn day to torrential downpour. He’d gotten a taxi back since he had more spare cash these days, but even so the walk between the road and the doorway was enough to drench him. As he stood dripping wet, the bags spilling out on the floor around his feet, Octavian came out of his apartment just to make Nico’s day even worse.

“You’re still here then?” he asked, though he sounded like he didn’t care much either way.

His temper was reaching breaking point: his hair was dripping into his eyes, his was tshirt soaked through and clinging to him, and he had been struggling with the front door key which had decided to jam in the lock and no amount of twisting and turning was working to set it free. But he did make one heroic attempt to ignore Octavian’s smug face and general air of self-satisfiedness.

“Thought you would have scarpered by now,” Octavian continued, leaning against the doorframe and studying like one might study a particularly unappealing specimen in a lab. Nico grit his teeth together and  took a deep breath.

“After all Will –“

“Okay you know what Octavian,” Nico said giving up on the key and turning. “I don’t get what you have against Will and frankly I don’t care. But yes I’m still here and I’m going to stay being still here so just deal with it.”

Octavian didn’t look moved.

“Sure,” he said shrugging his shoulders, “you say that now. But when he comes home covered in blood or lies about where he goes, or he vanishes for a week you’ll change your mind. They all do.”

Nico pulled a face at his back as Octavian wandered off, hands jammed in his pockets.

He didn’t want to let Octavian’s words bother him, he really didn’t. There was probably no truth in them and Octavian was just trying to rile him up. Nico was just feeling settled he didn’t need to believe the stupid scrawny scarecrow who apparently had nothing better to do than sit around and be bitter, complain about the noise like a grouchy eighty-year-old and make up stupid lies about his neighbours. Nico trusted Will. He didn’t care what Octavian said. He didn’t.

But then Will went out again the next day, falling back into his old habits of spending more time out of the house than in it, the words began to have an effect. He hated that Octavian could get into his head so easily but as Will left, Nico found himself slipping out after him.

He felt ridiculous stalking Will. He nearly turned back several times but then he’d hear Octavian in his head all over again and a surge of anger forced him on. Will wasn’t lying about going to class, about studying in the library, about studying with Cecil and Lou Ellen. And Nico was going prove it.

Except they’d pretty much walked past the university and Will hadn’t stopped. But that didn’t mean Octavian was right. He was probably just meeting Cecil or Lou Ellen first.

Eventually Will turned off into a hospital and Nico felt a twinge of fear – was Will secretly sick? – before he realised that Will wanted to be a doctor, so it was perfectly natural for him to be hanging out in a hospital.

Nico immediately felt incredibly embarrassed. He’d been stupid to let Octavian bother him. He’d buy Will lunch to make up for it, he thought, and confess what he’d done and what Octavian had said.

He wandered along to a nearby coffee shop and ordered himself a black coffee, and Will a smoothie and a sandwich. As he waited a couple of girls got in line behind him, tapping away on their phones. He didn’t notice them at first, but when they began nudging each other and pointing at him he turned, wondering if he was supposed to recognise them. He didn’t, but he wasn’t great with faces. They went red when he turned and didn’t say anything, and he didn’t feel like confronting them. They’d probably gotten him confused with someone else and it wasn’t worth the fight. Instead he just picked up order and left the store.

He was planning on leaving Will’s lunch at the reception with a note, but when he walked in he saw Will himself talking to one of the nurses. Will looked surprised to see Nico and Nico felt a sudden urge but he came over anyway.

“Nico?”

“I brought you lunch,” he said offering the bag and the smoothie. Will took them looking slightly confused.

“Thanks?”

Nico shrugged.

“I kind of followed you and then felt bad about it so –“

Will gave him an even more confused look as he took a sip of smoothie.

“You followed me?” Will asked. “You could have just asked where I was? I have a phone?”

Nico shook his head.

“No I mean – “

Will gave him another strange look but before Nico could continue a little girl emerged from a nearby room and grabbed hold of Will’s hand.

“I said wait Lily,” Will said, but his voice was gentle.

“Bored!” Lily protested. “You took too long!” She tugged at his hand and Will began to smile. He let Lily pull him away.

“I’ll see you later Nico,” Will said with a grin.

Will apparently volunteered in the children’s ward. Great. Now he felt even worse.

Will texted him around midday and asked if he wanted to have lunch. Nico felt like he should probably explain himself and his extreme paranoia so he agreed.

When Will came out he was still ostensibly in a good mood but Nico sensed he was keyed up underneath his veneer of happiness. Nico wondered if it was because of the stalking thing but when he tried to mention it Will once again shrugged it off.

“It’s fine,” he insisted.

“It was an invasion of your privacy and I should have known better than to listen to Octavian implying whatever he was implying.”

Will shrugged.

“Octavian may not look like much but he’s got a way of getting into people’s heads. I wouldn’t worry about it.”

“I don’t get why you’re not mad? I’d be mad.”

“Maybe I’m a better person than you are?” Will tried but his usual jokiness fell kind of flat. He sighed.

“Look I am just happy to see you alright? I’d probably be more annoyed any other day, but today it’s nice to see a friendly face.”

He crumpled up his sandwich wrapper, clenching it in his fist.

“Will?”

Will shook his head.

“You want to meet the kids?” he asked.

“Me?” Nico replied, slightly stunned because people didn’t usually ask him to meet children; they assumed him and children didn’t mix. They were right.

“No I’m talking to my invisible friend, who do you think?”

Nico thought about saying no, because children and he really wasn’t good with kids he was sure of that, but something about Will told him this was less about Nico meeting the kids and more about ill not being alone.

“Okay.”

The brightness of Will’s grin and the temporary relief in his eyes was worth whatever torture Nico was letting himself in for.

The children’s ward was cheerful and lively and not at all what Nico had imagined. A group of ten or so children had obviously been eagerly awaiting Will’s return because they rushed at him the second he came in the door. Will introduced him and as the children turned their eyes to him Nico felt a twinge of nervousness. They all gave him big bright grins and the little girl Nico recognised as Lily came and took Nico’s hand.

They were having an arts and crafts afternoon and someone had suggested making a puppet show. Nico helped some of the kids make princess and superhero puppets which quickly devolved into them dressing Nico up as a princess superhero. He sat very still as small hands fiddled with his hair, drew blush on with pink marker and affixed a golden sequin covered crown atop his head. He had been having fun, not just because every time he met Will’s eyes and saw the strange mixture of amusement, pride and something else he couldn’t identify he felt like he was melting. When it came time to say goodbye he was presented with parting gifts: a “magic wand”, a drawing of himself (or possibly a shadow demon he wasn’t sure and it seemed rude to ask) and a huge group hug.

“You’re good with kids,” Will said as they walked home together.

Nico gave Will a surprised look.

“I just let them play with my hair,” he said. “It wasn’t hard.”

“And dress you up like a superhero,” Will added.

“I’m a _princess_ superhero, thank you very much!”

Will laughed.

“I hope that pen wasn’t permanent,” he commented.

“Me too or else I’m definitely going to blame you Solace. And possibly get revenge by redecorating your face while you sleep.”

“I’m quaking in my shoes,” Will said very dryly.

“You should be.”

“Terrified,” Will confirmed very dryly. “You are after all, the most scary person I’ve ever met.”

Nico got the feeling he was being sarcastic.

“Shut up Solace.”

At home Will hung around in the living room, seemingly unable to decide on what to do. He’d pick something up only to put it down seconds later. In the time it took Nico to get the coke out of the fridge, pour himself a glass and replace it, Will had gone through reading, tv and studying.

“Movie?” Nico suggested.

Will actually jumped.

“Huh?” he asked, running a hand through his hair.

Nico went over to him, forced Will to sit.

“Are you alright?” he asked.

Will stared at him for a moment, and then looked down at his lap, twisting the rubber bracelet he sometimes wore round and round nervously.

“Will?” Nico asked gently.

“Sorry,” Will said with a slightly wry grin. “I know I’m probably being a bit annoying.”

“Not really. Not any more than usual.”

Will’s grin was a little more genuine this time. He was still fiddling though: wringing his hands together, rubbing at his wrist.

“My sister,” Will said suddenly, his voice so quiet Nico had to lean forward slightly. “Kayla. She had leukaemia a couple of years back. She’s got better but she’s going back for a check-up tomorrow and I’m scared –“

His voice broke off.

“I’m sure she’s okay. She _should_ be okay if the universe was fair. But that’s not – that’s not how the story usually goes.”

He shrugged, voice trembling.

“Maybe Octavian is right about me,” he said and Nico wanted to protest that no the walking talking scarecrow probably had never been right about anything and if he said the world was round Nico would have cause to doubt it.  

“I would volunteer with the kids anyway. They’re great. But I always volunteer more whenever Kayla’s got an appointment coming up. It’s really stupid. Like if maybe I’m a good person I won’t be punished anymore and they won’t take Kayla away. I’m selfish.”

“You’re not selfish Will Solace. No way.”

“I don’t know,” he said quietly. “I don’t think I’m who everyone else thinks I am.”

Nico didn’t know what to say. He was so surprised by Will suddenly opening up he was stunned silent anyway but he also had no idea how to comfort Will, what he could say to make Will feel better. On impulse he reached out and took Will’s hands, if only to stop Will rubbing his skin away. Will froze for a moment obviously surprised and Nico was about to jerk back but then Will squeezed his hands.

“Thanks Nico. For being there today.”

“You mean for stalking you?”

“Yeah okay maybe that bit wasn’t so great. But it turned out okay. Just don’t do it again.”

“Never,” Nico promised fervently and meant it entirely. He was never going to listen to Octavian again. Screw that living skeleton.

“So what do you want to do?” he asked, taking his hands back. Will raised an eyebrow at him.

“You can’t spend all evening worrying. I know it must be scary but we need to take your mind off this. Else you are going to drive yourself up the wall.”

Will bit his lip and nodded in rueful agreement.

“So? Movie? Mythomagic? Games? Uh we don’t have a very varied roster do we?”

Will giggled a little.

“Karaoke?” he suggested. “Russian roulette?”

Nico gave him a look.

“Just trying some variety.”

“That variety sucked. I genuinely don’t know which one of those two suggestions was worse.”

Will mimed a parody of Nico talking and Nico shoved him but gently because he was aware Will might be acting more normal but he was still fragile.

“Dancing!” Wil said suddenly.

“That might actually be the worst –“

“I’m serious!” Will interrupted. “I’m your date to the engagement party right? There’s going to be dancing and I’m not having you show me up. I need to assess your skills.”

“I can… dance.”

“I don’t think you could sound any less convincing if you tried,” Will said.

“Will I don’t dance,” Nico said but he said it hesitantly because he was very aware that Will would probably do the puppy eyes and he would probably cave instantly.

“Everyone can dance,” Will said dismissively. “Besides you also said you weren’t good with children and that turned out to be an enormous lie.”

Nico looked at Will. And yep, he was doing the thing again where he looked all bright and enthusiastic and happy and it made Nico’s heart feel all fluttery and his will soften until he was malleable. And why did he have to fall for someone who had such charm and didn’t even seem to know?

“Fine.”

Will clapped his hands together.

“It’ll be fun,” he said. “I promise. And if you really really hate it today we won’t have to dance at the engagement thing.”

“We don’t have to dance at the engagement thing anyway,” Nico commented. “But if that’s your offer you should have led with that. I’m prepared to accept those terms.”

“Deal then,” Will said laughing. He pulled Nico up to his feet and Nico tried hard not to blush the second he felt Will’s hand in his.

“Disney?” Nico asked with a sigh as Will fiddled about with his iPod and the speakers.

“This is a great cover,” Will said.

“Where’s this particular one from?” Nico asked trying to summon up his usual layer of disinterest but actually the song was kind of catchy with a good beat, and _ugh,_ Will was rubbing off on him.

“The Jungle Book,” Will said. “Now come on, I remember you cleaning: you weren’t half bad.”

Nico assumed he was referring to the washing machine disaster.

“Actually I think you did most of the dancing then,” Nico mumbled but he obliged just to see Will’s reaction. He couldn’t believe the way Will completely lit up at his swaying reluctantly from side to side.

“Not bad,” Will said. His dancing was kind of mesmerising, so carefree and happy as he bobbed along, singing along and getting the voices and inflections just right. He let Will grab his hands and force him to sway a little more. His heart double-tied to match the beat and he hoped his cheeks weren’t as red as they felt. He didn’t object when Will turned him, just starting laughing.

If dancing usually made you feel this light he could see why people did it.

“You know I’m only humouring you because you have a pretty legitimate sob story right?” Nico asked as Will flicked through his music catalogue.

Will just stuck out his tongue because he was a mature individual.

“You’re a liar Nico di Angelo,” Will said. “ _Don’t cope well with kids. Don’t dance._ Yeah right.”

“Humouring you,” Nico insisted but he was sure his cheeks were heating up.

“Is this more to your taste?”

It was the Ramones. Nico was surprised he remembered.

“Alright,” he said suddenly.

“Alright?”

“Alright, you’re right. We should dance at the engagement party. I mean it will keep up the charade.”

 _And I kind of really like dancing with you, and I_ really _don’t know when to quit to save myself future heartache._

“Admit it,” Will said. “You just like dancing.”

Nico smirked at him, but didn’t admit it.

“I think what I liked most is annoying Octavian. I predict he’ll be knocking on the walls any time soon.”

Will laughed.

“Well if we turn the music up we won’t have to hear him.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

The dance party quickly turned into an over exaggerated karaoke party which Will got to be smug about because Nico found out that that was yet another thing he didn’t hate when he was in Will’s presence. He managed to keep Will occupied with games, and then a couple of cartoons. They ordered food, Will pocketed his fortune cookie with an irritated expression (and Nico was sure he’d requested not to get any), and finally watched Mamma Mia because Will said there wasn’t nothing like a stupid storyline and ABBA songs to cheer you up. Nico disagreed with the sentiment entirely but was content enough to let Will have his way.

He stayed with Will until Will could barely keep his eyes open and then sent him packing to his room to sleep. Nico ended up lying awake, however, staring at the ceiling and wondering how he was going to move on from Will Solace. That was how he knew that at about half past one Will crept out. He didn’t let it worry him though. He didn’t need to know where Will was going though: he trusted him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Jungle Book song I was envisioning was Fall Out Boy's version of I Wanna Be Like You, if anyone was wondering. It's an awesome cover.


	9. Chapter Eight - We've Got No Future, We've Got No Past

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nico meets Will's friends and gets ever closer to the engagement party.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this has been so long. I got suddenly very busy with a surprise visit from my best friend which was lovely but meant I couldn't do as much writing as normal. I think I'm back on schedule now though so we should be back to our regular scehduled updating. 
> 
> Chapter title from West End Girls, by the Pet Shop Boys.

Nico had been living with Will solace for a month and a bit and, in all that time, Will had never attacked him. Still there was a first time for everything and one minute he was half-watching tv and the next Will was suddenly there and launching himself at Nico. He held onto Nico tightly, unable to keep still and practically vibrating with excitement. Nico was too surprised to hug him back which was lucky because he already was worried about the consequences of learning that Will’s shampoo smelt like tropical fruit on his already intense crush.

“She’s okay!” Will said.

He let go of Nico, which Nico absolutely shouldn’t have been disappointed about, but remained within Nico’s personal space bubble, bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet.

 “I’m really glad,” Nico said honestly.  Will’s answering grin was blinding.

“Me too,” Will said, slightly unnecessarily.

“So we’re going to a show,” he said, still doing his best impression of a spring that had been twanged. “And to dinner and stuff. Are you going to be alright here on your own?”

Nico gave him a look.

“I can’t believe you’re even asking. Go! Have fun and celebrate!”

Will gave him another blinding grin, vibrated some more and then was halfway to the door, moving like he had super speed.

“I’ll see you later,” he yelled at at least twice his usual volume, and vanished with a slamming of the door.

And then all was quiet.

Nico felt his chest ease and realised for the first time just how tense he’d been since Will had left that morning. Nico was incredibly relieved Kayla was alright, which was a little odd since he’d never met the girl. Still after the amount of second-hand stress he’d been receiving from Will and the way he was desperate for Will to be happy and safe and warm and well-away from sadness and things that could hurt him, perhaps that made sense.

He was settling down for a quiet afternoon reading, ignoring the tv and his crush when there was a loud persistent pounding on the door. He briefly debated ignoring it on the chance it was Octavian complaining about something and/or giving more cryptic clues implying Will was some kind of secret super villain or whatever. He then realised the banging didn’t quite have Octavian’s brutal rhythm nor was it accompanied by his shrill, insistent screeches and wondered if, for some reason, Percy was visiting him.

When he opened the door he found Cecil staring at him, fist raised mid-bang.

“Left a book here,” he said by way of greeting. “Will said I could come by and pick it up.”

Before Nico could decide whether he believed that story, Cecil had somehow insinuated his way past him and had flung himself down onto the couch, having acquired a bag of pretzels out of one of the cupboards along the way. He was followed by a girl with dark hair he thought must be Lou Ellen.

“Nice to see you Nico,” she said with a smile. “Would you like a muffin?”

She offered him a paper bag from one of the local bakeries but Nico just shook his head in slight bemusement.

Lou Ellen shrugged and went to join Cecil, unabashedly examining random objects along the way. Nico decided not to bother trying to delay the inevitable and went to join them.

“It’s good you’re getting back on your feet,” Cecil said. “After all those tooth aches.”

“It’s been difficult,” Nico said, meeting Cecil’s open suspicion with a straight face and a dry tone.

“And those family emergencies.”

“Will’s been like my rock.”

“And that time you couldn’t come meet up with us because you had been killed by a herd of wildebeest stampeding.”

“Yeah,” Nico agreed wondering exactly when Will had run out of or stopped bothering with excuses. “That was tough.”

“Glad to see you’re feeling better.”

“Thanks,” Nico said innocently. “That means a lot.”

Cecil glowered at him.

“Peppermint is great for toothaches,” Lou Ellen said, with an expression so straight Nico couldn’t work out if she was serious or not.

“Anyway now we’re all here,” Cecil said, “and not dying –“

“Will’s not here,” Lou Ellen pointed out. She was watching the ceiling with a faint smile.

“Now all of us bar Will are here,” Cecil amended. “We can catch up. It’s been so long right Nico? And I’m kinda curious because Will isn’t usually shy about us meeting his boyfriends. So what’s the deal? Did we really make that terrible a first impression?”

Considering the first time Nico had met Cecil he’d gone from class-clown to downright scary in 0.2 seconds, Nico could safely say Cecil had made something of a first impression. He had to admit he didn’t think much of Will’s friends but he had warmed up to Cecil slightly, despite the threats. No _because_ of the threats: Cecil clearly cared about Will.

He just hoped Cecil didn’t care enough about Will to somehow come to the conclusion that murdering Nico would protect Will.

“I’m shy?” Nico tried.

The look Cecil gave him could melt steel.

“Why are you even still around?” he demanded. “If you want something from him, or are playing him for whatever reason or –“

“I’m not,” Nico said quickly. “I swear.”

“That sounds exactly like something someone who was doing that would say.” 

“But –“

“I’m not convinced Di Angelo. Seriously what are you after? His money? Want your five minutes of fame?”

“Will’s pretty,” Lou Ellen said mildly. “It could just be that. Like, I’d date him if he wasn’t like a brother to me and he wasn’t gay and-.”

Cecil suddenly turned to glare at Lou Ellen.

“I feel like you’re not taking this very seriously,” he said accusingly.

Lou Ellen shrugged.

“The thing about intimidating people,” she said thoughtfully, “is that for it to be effective you have to be scary. You have to mean what you say. And you can act tough all you want Cecil Markowitz everyone knows that really you wouldn’t hurt a fly and are thus about as scary as a paper bag.”

Nico thought Cecil had been plenty intense enough but he didn’t say that. Lou Ellen seemed like the sensible one. Maybe she could talk Cecil out of doing his impression of the Spanish Inquisition and Nico could get back to reading his book.

“Cecil thinks you’re out to hurt Will in some way,” Lou Ellen continued. “I am on the fence. You seem alright enough though I’ll admit Will’s being really odd about you. However, I swear to whichever deities might be listening that if you hurt Will in any way I will end you.”

“Right,” Nico said a little weakly. Because Lou Ellen was intense-Cecil up to eleven and he hadn’t really expected that. “But, um, no offence but don’t you guys think Will can take care of himself?”

Lou Ellen and Cecil exchanged looks.

“No.”

“Nuh-uh.”

“Other people,” Lou Ellen said. “Yeah sure. Himself? No. He’s useless.”

That about tallied up with Nico’s impression of Will so he shrugged.

“Well I feel suitably warned. But I don’t want to hurt him so I feel like you guys have kind of wasted your time –“

“Oh we didn’t just come here to threaten you,” Lou Ellen said.

“No?” Nico asked with considerable trepidation. He wondered what other horrible activities they had in mind.

“No. That would be mildly psychotic,” Lou Ellen said with an all too self-aware grin. “We came here to hang out.”

It was worse than Nico had expected.

But he supposed it was also inevitable.

“So,” Lou Ellen said with a bright smile, “we have no idea what you like because Will won’t tell us a single thing. So I brought the muffins, some board games, a bottle of gin –“

She began extracting the items from her bag as she said them leaving Nico to wonder how on earth she’d packed them all in.

“-there’s some playing cards, Mario Kart – you still have the wii right?”

“There’s always truth or dare,” Cecil said. He was sending Nico fewer suspicious glares now so Nico thought perhaps he was beginning to win him over. He vetoed truth or dare heavily though. Cecil and Lou Ellen might have been able to force their way into the flat, the may have been able to force him to hang out but they would never force him to play truth or dare.

“You two knew Will was out with Kayla,” he commented as he watched Lou Ellen continue to pull increasingly bizarre items from her apparently bottomless bag.

“We’re happy she’s better. Like so relieved,” Lou Ellen said. “And second to that relief was the realisation that with Will out it was a great opportunity to – “

“- pounce,” Cecil said.

“- _hang out_ ,” Lou Ellen said.

“Right,” Nico said with a sigh.

 _Inevitable_ , he told himself. It was a painful duty he had to perform if he wanted to continue being Will’s pretend boyfriend and staying in his company until Will ~~fell in love with him and they got married~~ got fed up and/or a proper boyfriend and kicked Nico out.

Will, after all, was too good to be true so if his friends weren’t psychotically obsessed with becoming his friend too (or possibly stalking him to ensure he wasn’t going to harm their friend) then Nico would start to worry that there would be some other hidden cost around the corner. He’d learnt quickly and he’d learnt young that nothing came without pain. Lou Ellen and Cecil were the (comparatively tame) pain, he had to endure to keep quietly crushing on his new friend.   

He wondered what the bare minimum interaction would be before he could safely kick them out and wearily picked the pack of cards from Lou Ellen’s pile.

When Will got back much much later, with a sleepy, ginger haired teenager in tow he took one look at the apartment and then Nico.

“Lou Ellen and Cecil attacked while I was gone then? I probably should have predicted that.”

He then seemed to register Nico had never met his sister before and tapped Kayla’s arm.

“This is Kayla. Kayla say hi.”

Kayla said hi in the form of waving absently in Nico’s general direction and then she wandered off towards Will’s room where presumably she crashed onto the floor in a dead sleep.

“She always insists she’s fine and she’s not worried but the check-ups always take a lot out of her emotionally. And me as well I guess. Thanks again for last night. I guess Lou Ellen and Cecil ganging up on you wasn’t the greatest of rewards?”

Nico shrugged.

“It was actually… alright.”

Will looked at him in surprise and Nico felt surprised himself. But it really had been alright. They’d been chatty enough that Nico hadn’t felt pressured enough to fill any awkward silences and they’d let Nico sit back and be silent when he wanted to. Despite their threats otherwise and Nico’s fears, there was no over-protective-dad style third degree. They really did just hang out with him and then leave.

“Are you sure?”

“It was interesting in its own way,” Nico said with a slight shrug. “They are quite a pair.”

Will sat down beside him and with a glance at Nico, who responded with a shrug, changed the channel.

“You could say that again,” Will said. “Sorry. Still hopefully they’ll be satisfied now that we’re all friends or whatever and won’t bug you anymore.”

“I think Lou Ellen invited me shopping,” Nico answered. “Something about engagement party clothes. She seemed a bit scandalised when I said I didn’t know what I was going to wear.”

Will laughed then he stopped abruptly.

“What _are_ we supposed to wear?”

Nico shrugged.

“Whatever you want. I don’t care.”

“So I could turn up in my pyjamas?” Will teased.

“If you like.”

“And if I went dressed as batman?”

“Wouldn’t bother me.”

“And if I decided to –“

“Seriously Solace whatever you want,” Nico insisted and regretted it almost instantly. Still he had faith in Will and he still had to figure out what he was going to wear which would take up a good portion of his worrying quota, with the remaining dedicated to how much of a good idea it was to publicly introduce Will to his friends and sister as his boyfriend. He didn’t have the headspace to worry about Will’s choice of outfit. 

Nico let Jason take him shopping for outfits. It was one of the rare weekends Jason came back for a visit and he’d turned up at Nico door and carried out what Lou Ellen had only threatened. Nico thought this was partly because Jason was busying worrying about Nico’s state of mind given the fact Percy hadn’t yet broken off the engagement and professed he was making a huge mistake and was actually in love with Nico. It was also probably partly because Jason was busy worrying that Nico would turn up in ripped jeans and an old shirt. It was however probably mostly because Piper was busy catching up with Annabeth and so Jason was bored.

“What about this one?” Jason asked holding up a pale pink tie.

Nico stared at him.

“Okay you’re right,” Jason agreed. “Maybe not. This?”

It was teal: Percy’s colour and not any better.

“Are you screwing with me?” Nico asked because he wasn’t entirely sure.

“It’s a party, not a funeral,” Jason said. “You have to have some colour. It implies you’re happy about their engagement whether or not you actually are.”

“I am,” Nico said, running his finger distractedly along a rack of dress shirts, and wincing at the prices. “Happy I mean.”

Jason raised an eyebrow.

“I mean it,” Nico said. “I’m happy for them. I’m glad they are engaged: they’re a great couple.”

Jason examined his face minutely at that, as though searching for any irony, sarcasm or hints that he was lying through his teeth.

“You changed your tune,” he said eventually.

Nico just shrugged.

“Did you meet someone?” Jason asked. He was trying to play it casual but Nico knew him too well and besides this was what Jason had been waiting for for like at least two years.

Nico shrugged again because the situation was way too complicated and even if he was the open and sharing is caring type he wouldn’t want to get into this in the middle of the menswear section of whichever department store hell they were in.

Jason seemed to figure out something was going on and he began grinning. His smile wasn’t quite as bright as Will’s but it was nice to know he cared.

Nico deliberately didn’t invite Jason back to Will’s. He’d had enough of socialising and people in his home, and besides Jason would get to get introduced to the latest complication in Nico’s life at the engagement party anyway. Will wasn’t going anywhere.

As if to illustrate that fact, Will was lying on the floor when Nico got back, having orchestrated a book invasion of the living area. Will had his eyes closed and was singing a more technical version of dem bones, touching the various bones as in his hand as he did so.

“I didn’t realise you’d be back so early,” he said when he looked up and saw Nico watching him. “I’ll tidy up.”

“It’s alright,” Nico said, picking his way through the mess to squish in next to a textbook on muscular structure. “I was enjoying your singing.”

Will glared at him and througha wad of sticky notes at Nico’s face.

“Some of us have work to do you know,” he said in a sing-song high and mighty voice in a scarily accurate impression of Octavian, if Octavian had flesh on his bones, colour in his face and a wickedly cheeky grin.

“Like you’re working,” Nico said. “You’re sitting there singing a kids song.”

“What’s the neck bone connected to Nico?” Will teased.

“It’s the shin bone right? No wait I got this it’s the heart bone!”

Will shook his head and began packing his work away.

“Do you need a biology tutor?” Will asked in mock concern.

“Why, you offering?” Nico asked before realising how that might have come across and he felt his cheeks heat up. Will didn’t seem to notice, just shrugged.

“Nah, I’m way to busy. I think Cecil does biology though so maybe –“

Will’s smile was devious. Nico threw the sticky notes back at him but Will caught them one handed, the show off, and shoved them back into the depths of his backpack along with the rest of his books and pencils.

“So there’s a monster movie marathon on tonight,” Will said. “Which beats bone structure.”

“I’m up for that.”

“Good,” Will said. “You can go put the popcorn on then.”

With the engagement party drawing closer Nico grew increasingly nervous until he became nothing more than a ball of nervous tension. He could feel himself getting paranoid, could swear that people were pointing at him in the street and whispering. _Look there’s that idiot that thought it would be a great idea to invite his current crush to the engagement of his old crush as his fake boyfriend. What could go wrong with that?_

Having eventually wrangled a dress code out of Percy – and what even was smart casual anyway, that had to be the most unhelpful information ever – he settled on a nice pair of black jeans with zero rips or holes (intended or otherwise) and a smart-ish dress shirt. He hung out in front of the mirror, fussing with his hair and then the cuffs: rolling them up out of the way before unrolling them again.

 _Smart casual_. He was going to kill Percy.

“Do you think I need a tie?” he asked no one in particular.

“I hope not,” Will said from his doorway. “Because I don’t have one either.”

Nico turned to answer him and was, embarrassingly, stunned into silence. Somehow over the weeks he’d become immune to Will’s beauty but tonight it was out in full force. He looked like he’d just stepped off the cover of a magazine possibly having detoured to glossy page fame from a runway in Paris. 

“You look –“ Nico began and then remembered they weren’t really dating and was it weird to comment on his friend’s dress?

Will grinned and pantomimed a twirl.

“Not bad yourself,” he said when he’d rotated the full three sixty in which Nico was forced to study the doorframe to stop himself blushing. “This was the plan right? Knock them dead with our awesomeness.”

“Yeah,” Nico agreed a little weakly and seriously why had he ever thought this was a good idea. And who was going to believe them? Why ever would the stunning Will be dating him?

Will must have picked up on his nervousness.

“If you’ve changed your mind,” he said, going back to leaning against the doorframe. “I can stay here. I’ve got notes to write up.”

Nico’s heart jumped and he realised that the only thing in the universe worse than going to this party with Will as his pretend boyfriend and therefore coming out to everyone at once at Percy’s engagement, would be facing Percy’s engagement alone. He felt like this was important somehow, the engagement was the official start of the journey to Percy’s new life but somehow Nico thought it was going to change things for him too.

He wondered if tonight would be a beginning or an end. He did know that whatever happened, and whatever the consequences for him and Will, he wanted his stupid dorky ~~crush~~ friend by his side.

“No,” Nico answered firmly. “I want you to come.”

Will shrugged like it didn’t matter either way but Nico caught the small smile he tried to hide.

“Come on then,” Will said, holding out his hand. “We should probably be going.”

Nico swallowed. He took Will’s proffered hand and let Will lead him out of the apartment and onto an uncertain future.

                                                                                  


	10. Chapter Nine - I Guess I Never Told You (The Engagement Party Part 1)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The engagement party finally arrives.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter Title from You Were Always on My Mind, by the Pet Shop Boys

Nico had been living with Will for over a month now. Since they’d agreed to fake date, and since Nico had impulsively invited him to Percy’s engagement party Nico had been in two minds whether either of those decisions had been good rational ones. The party at least had seemed so far in the future that Nico had thought he’d never have to deal with it and so the moments of mild panic generally gave way to a blasé sense of calm.

And now here he was. Anything but calm.

Nico knew Percy had a part time job but he thought Percy’s dad must have stepped in to help out with the engagement party costs. They’d hired out a small club and evidentially controlled the playlist since the strange mix of cheesy eighties tunes and heavy dance tracks mixed in with a couple of rock songs and girl power anthems was pure Percy. The heavy pounding beats were very familiar from all the house parties Percy had dragged him too, even if the pearlescent balloons, banners, and fancy buffet table seemed all too fancy and grown up to be associated with Percy Jackson.

“Where are the dolphins?” Will asked. “You promised me tacky dolphins.”

In the two seconds they’d been in the room Will been checked out by several of Percy’s friends and handed a plastic champagne flute by an appreciative waiter. Nico had to grit his teeth and remember that while he could act jealous he wasn’t technically allowed to be jealous since, _technically_ , Will wasn’t his.

It was kind of hard to remember that though, when Will was still holding his hand.

It was probably in solidarity since Nico had been jittery the entire taxi ride over, and had almost told their driver to turn back around three times. It was only the fact that Will was next to him that made him stick to his course. He didn’t want Will to think he was a coward. He could face Percy. He could face Annabeth and all their friends. He could do this.

Will nudged him gently and Nico remembered Will was waiting for an answer. He blinked and tried to remember what Will had said.

“ _Dolphins_ , Nico,” Will supplied, obviously realising his mind was elsewhere. “I was expected to be visually assaulted. This is almost tasteful.”

After the five-text long essay on dolphins containing more facts about the aquatic mammals than Nico knew what to do with plus at least ten too many exclamation marks, Nico had also been expecting dolphins anywhere. But Will was right, there wasn’t a grinning not-fish in sight.

“Maybe his best man talked him out of it,” he said.

“Isn’t that you?”

“The other one. The better man. The one who actually helps with stuff.”

Will passed his champagne to Nico and obtained a new one. It was handed over with a wink and Nico held back a scowl with difficulty. People used to think he was frightening. What had happened? Why did people suddenly think it was okay to flirt with his (not-)boyfriend?

Oh god his _boyfriend_.

He was out, in both senses of the word, with Will and why had he thought this was a good idea? Maybe he should just go home and drag Will with him and they could watch a film or get ice cream or really do anything but this because -

“Hey Percy.”

“Will! My future biology tutor! I am so glad you came! And you dragged Nico with you! It’s an early Christmas miracle!”

Will’s answering smile was smaller than it should have been and though Nico still wasn’t sure why Will was so uncertain around Percy he drew closer. Percy, oblivious enough to Will’s hesitance, noticed that. He raised an eyebrow then his gaze dropped down to their linked hands and stayed there, eyes wide, mouth hanging open.

Percy seemed at a complete loss, train of thought utterly derailed. Nico couldn’t help but supply the words Percy couldn’t get out so sure they’d be of horror or evulsion or accusation or disgust or all of the above, and he withdrew further. He wanted to shrink away, run away, be swallowed up the shadows, the ground, something. Why wasn’t Percy saying anything?

He took a step back bumped into Will, and something in Will seemed to steel.

“Didn’t you hear?” Will asked, waving their linked hands, his grip suddenly slightly tighter.  His tone was light enough but Nico thought there was an undertone to his words.

Percy managed to regain himself and his grin came back, easy enough as though the sudden uncertainty in his expression had never been there.

“Nope,” he said with perfect cheer. “Neeks doesn’t tell me anything. How long?”

Will adlibbed some answers to Percy’s questions. Nico barely heard him. He’d (sort of) told his told crush about his new (sort of) boyfriend and nothing bad had happened. In fact, after the initial moment of shock that had seemed like an eternity but probably had really been no longer than a second or two Percy had moved on so quickly that Nico was a little stunned. He just didn’t seem to care that Nico was dating Will.

No, that was a lie. He looked _happy_ for him. He kept sending Nico big happy grins, and thumbs up when he thought Will wasn’t looking. He was already fairly tipsy so his sense of timing wasn’t exactly the best but Will’s small smile and fond rolling of his eyes at Nico suggested Will didn’t mind too much. In fact, he seemed a tiny bit more relaxed too.

 “Is there somewhere I can put my jacket?” Will asked eventually, interrupting Percy’s probably well-meaning curiosity tirade of questions, letting go of Nico’s hand to shrug it off.

“Cloakroom,” Percy said, pointing back towards the entrance.

“I’ll be right back,” Will told Nico.  

“Soooooooooooo-“ Percy said the second Will was out of earshot, managing to drag the single word out for an inordinate length of time. “You and Will.”

He threw an arm around Nico’s shoulders and corralled him over to a side booth. Nico was surprised to find he barely noticed the touch, apart from acknowledging that Percy’s arm was heavy and he wasn’t thrilled with being dragged off. It surprised him and he examined Percy more closely.

His friend looked the same as he always had: messy dark hair sticking up like waves on the ocean, sea green eyes. He had swapped his usual uniform of hoodies and jeans, was dressed to impress in a light blue shirt and a nice pair of jeans. He was still attractive, maybe more so than usual in his _smart-casual_ outfit, it was just that Nico didn’t really care anymore. It registered, but it didn’t matter. And something in his chest eased a fraction more at the revelation, the final crushing tendrils of love loosened and deadened.

“Come on,” Percy said, nudging him. “Seriously? You’re going to go silent on me?”

Nico shrugged.

“I don’t get why you care so much,” Nico said but he couldn’t quite summon up as much animosity as usual.

“I want you to be happy,” Percy said simply. “I thought we’d been through this _Best Man_. And Will seems like a good place to start. He’s pretty cute right? I mean I’m engaged now and straight but if I had to choose a dude – actually it would probably be Jason.”

Once upon a time that joke might have hurt. Now Nico just rolled his eyes.

“You’re not funny Jackson,” he said.

“I’m pretty funny. Come on though give me something here,” he said. “What’s he like?”

Nico sighed but he thought about that.

“Nice,” he said eventually. “ _And_ we’re done Jackson. Look you’ve got guests arriving.”

“Ah they’re Annabeth’s friends,” Percy said with a shrug but he did get up.

“Drinks are on me,” he said as he went to leave. “Try and have fun for once in your life. Enjoy the fact half the room wants to jump your boyfriend.”

Nico went bright red and tried to choke out a witty reply but all he could do was watch in mild horror as Percy disappeared with a final wink his way.

Nico was sure his cheeks were aflame when Will rejoined him a moment later.

“Everything alright?” Will asked, sitting down closer than Nico expected. Nico did notice Will’s touch, where their arms rested against each other he could feel the warmth of Will’s bare forearms through the thin material of his shirt. It made his mouth dry and his heart thump as nerves crowded him.  

Nico nodded anyway.

“Surprisingly yes,” he admitted softly.

“You didn’t tell me you weren’t out to everyone,” Will said gently. “It was pretty brave coming here.”

“Pretty stupid you mean,” Nico said. “I’ve got to go through that like seven times.”

Will suddenly grinned.

“I can kiss you in front of everyone if you like. Get it all out of the way in one go.”

Nico laughed because it was all he could do. He was intensely relieved his cheeks were already red. He shook his head, a little too forcefully as he tried to clear thoughts of the two of them kissing.

“That can be the last resort. Defcon 5 or whatever.”

Will glanced at him and Nico wondered what he was thinking, but Will was hard to read not only because it wasn’t quite light enough to make out his expression. In the dim light his golden lashes and light blue eyes looked dark, and Nico could barely make out his freckles. Still even with his favourite features masked Will was, in Nico’s not-at-all biased opinion, still the most beautiful person in the room. Nico wondered idly whether Will would really go through with kissing Nico, if Nico got drunk or self-destructive enough to ask.

“I think you mean Defcon one,” Will said teasingly. “It’s backwards to what everyone thinks. Or wait maybe it is Defcon Five and I’ve convinced myself into thinking the right way is wrong and –“

Nico let him babble and tried to calm his heartbeat down. If he could just keep Will in this booth for the rest of the party maybe he’d actually make it through in one piece with his heart un-broken.

“Oh I love this song!” Will said suddenly interrupting his own monologue. “Let’s dance. Oh unless you want to hang out in this booth all evening. That’s good too.”

Nico vaguely remembered agreeing to dancing when Will had been worried about Kayla and that was the only reason he let Will catch hold of his wrist and pull him out to the dance floor.

Oh who was he kidding, he was a self-destructive wreck who would trade a future of heartbreak for one night of pretending Will loved him back.

The dancefloor was already crowded and so they were forced to dance fairly close together. Even without that it was different to how they’d danced in the flat, when Will had been seeking a distraction. That had been carefree and slightly hysterical and more than anything it felt like two friends rocking out in their living room. Which it had been.

Maybe it was the alcohol. Nico had insisted they go to the dancefloor via the bar, intending to take up Percy on the free drinks thing so he could be tipsy enough to cope with the fine line that existed between Will being his boyfriend (which wasn’t real) and pretending Will was his boyfriend (which was).

But he didn’t feel _that_ drunk. He’d been careful. After all there was the other fine line to toe which was not getting so drunk that he forgot himself and ended up making out with Will in a cupboard.

Maybe it was just that Will was happier tonight. Except he didn’t think that was quite true either. Will was acting the part of himself well but Nico knew him well enough by now to know it was just acting. He was being very careful, Nico thought, and deliberate. In the taxi he’d been perfectly happy holding Nico’s hand, as though he’d forgotten he was even doing it. In here every touch seemed carefully calculated to seem like they were close but in actuality he was a galaxy away, his eyes distant and his thoughts unreadable.

It made Nico want to move closer to try and reach him. Except he couldn’t. Will wasn’t his. Which meant Will wasn’t his to fix. This was one night of pretending and then this was all over.

The thought made Nico pull away slightly. Will looked at him questioningly.

“I’m going to get a drink,” Nico said and pushed his way through the crowds of people before Will could follow him.

At the bar he bumped into Piper.

“Nico!” she said. “It’s good to see you. It’s been forever right?”

Nico concurred that it had indeed been forever and muttered something vague and hopefully unactionable about meeting up with her and Jason some time.  He liked Piper well enough: she usually knew when he had too much of socialising and was good at getting Jason to stop mother-henning and for that reason, and many more, was a good fit for his friend. Right now though his mind was a million miles away and he wasn’t really in the mood for small talk.

“You okay?” Piper asked. “Percy – uh, he mentioned you were dating some guy called Will? He was mostly furious at Jason for not telling him but then he worked out Jason hadn’t known either.”

Nico clenched his jaw against a very real desire for Piper to tell Piper to get on with it.

“Percy said he seems alright,” Piper prompted. Nico shrugged unhappily, unsure what he was supposed to respond with. _Yeah he’s great, I think might be falling for him only catch is he’s not really my boyfriend._ He didn’t think so.

“Look Nico if this about –“

The guy behind the bar handed Nico his drink, and relieved for a distraction he downed it without thinking and then slid down off his stool.

“Gotta go,” Nico said. “Don’t want to leave Will on his own for too long, he doesn’t know anyone here…”

He left his excuse trailing as he walked off as fast as he could without it looking weird. He couldn’t see Will on the dance floor and began to panic that Will had gotten tired of his vanishing act and left. He was turning back to search for Will when he bumped into Jason. Normally Nico would be more pleased to see his oldest friend but now he just felt impatient and oddly jittery.

“Nico is everything alright? Piper said you left in a bit of a hurry.”

“Fine,” Nico said shortly. He couldn’t see Will by the bar so it couldn’t be that Will had got bored of waiting and come to look for Nico.

He shouldn’t have downed his drink. He could feel the alcohol rushing up to his head, making the room sway. He’d felt too nervous to eat any dinner which probably hadn’t helped either. Maybe if he grabbed one of those fancy little snack things he’d be able to walk in a straight line – snacks maybe Will had gone to get snacks.

“Nico!”

“Oh were you talking?”

Jason stared at him, then sighed and for the second time that night Nico found himself being steered off.

This time Jason took Nico outside onto the fire escape where the cold air helped clear his head slightly but chilled the rest of him. He hugged himself to try and keep warm and waited for Jason to finish worrying.

“Nico? You want to talk?” Jason asked

“Never,” Nico said. “Great talk. Let’s go back in.”

“Does Percy know about -?”

“No, Jason. He does not. I’m not an idiot, I know you don’t spring a _hey I used to have a major crush on you_ on your best friend at his engagement party. I know I don’t get out much, but I’m not socially inept.”

“Used to,” Jason quoted, with an eyebrow raised slightly. “You really are over him.”

Nico froze.

“Yeah,” he said. “I guess I am.” 

“And Will-?”

“He exists Jason,” Nico said irritably.

“I never said he didn’t,” Jason said with a quick laugh, raising his hands in slightly panicked surrender. “That wasn’t where I was going with that. I just want to make sure you’re happy.”

“Never been happier,” Nico said which sounded fake even to his own ears. He could tell Jason was picking up on his discomfort. He wanted to head off Jason going down completely the wrong path and assuming Will was some kind of shallow rebound, or worse that Will was a terrible boyfriend so he sighed and bit the bullet.

“Look you want to meet him?”

Jason tried, and failed, to hide his excitement.

“Really?” he asked. “Cos’ if you don’t want to I’d totally understand, if it’s a new thing and you don’t want to like introduce Will to everybody just yet that’s fine –“

“Geez, Jase you’re starting to make me regret offering.”

“Let’s go meet him!” Jason said cheerily and quickly before Nico could change his mind.

Back inside the music seemed all the louder and Nico still couldn’t see Will anywhere.

“Uh he really does exist,” Nico said as they completed a lap of the dancefloor. “Percy’s met him and everything.”

Except as his boyfriend Will kind of _didn’t_ exist and he got the feeling that by introducing Will to Jason he was going to complicate things. Like a lot. Still he now couldn’t think of a way to shake Jason off without making everything even weirder so he continued with searching for Will, Jason in tow.

Eventually Jason got bored of seeking out Nico’s fantasy boyfriend and Piper dragged him off to dance.

“We’ll catch up later,” Jason promised. “I really do want to meet him.”

“Sure,” Nico said a little noncommittedly, already walking off.

The club really wasn’t very big so he really didn’t understand where Will could have gotten to. Unless he’d left. But Will wouldn’t do that. He knew they weren’t dating but he was pretty sure they were friends.

He went back out onto the fire escape to get some air. The club was stifling and the pounding music and Percy’s attempts to drag him into a dance had made him feel claustrophobic. There he found his not-boyfriend leaning against the railing and looking out at the night sky.

“There you are!” Nico said trying to hide his relief in teasing. “Thought you’d skipped out on me – hey I didn’t know you smoked.”

Will looked down at the cigarette in his hands like he’d forgotten it was there.

“I don’t,” he said with a shrug. “Someone just handed it to me.”

He seemed to shake himself out of his daze and gave Nico a half smile. It was the sad smile and it instantly had Nico nervous.

“I was looking for you,” Will said. “Thought maybe you’d run off with someone prettier.”

“Nah,” Nico said. “I’m relying on you to pay for the taxi back. You’re stuck with me now.”

Will smiled, a little more genuinely this time.

“Aren’t you cold?” he asked, apparently noticing Nico shivering.

“Aren’t you cold?” Nico countered. “How long have you been out here?”

“I’ll admit I kind of lost track. I was thinking.”

“A bad idea,” Nico couldn’t help but say. It was worth it to see Will’s smile flicker on again, even if it was very momentary.

“I need to talk to you,” Will said quietly.

“Is this the part where you fake break up with me?” Nico joked nervously. “Because I wasn’t kidding about the taxi ride home: I forgot to get cash out.”

_Delay the inevitable, delay the inevitable._

“I promise to get you home,” Will said with a slight smile. “But Nico I –“

He paused, like he was struggling to find the right words. Nico couldn’t read his expression; the night was too dark. His stomach felt like he’d accidentally swallowed a ball of lead along with the alcohol. Maybe he was reading too much into this. Last time Will looked this cagey after all it had been the start of their fake relationship not some disaster. 

_(So it would be kind of fitting if this were the end of it.)_

“I’m not –“ Will began.

“Hey Nico there you are,” Percy said bursting out of the door, bringing a wave of warm air and loud music with him.

“Jason wants to do toasts or something before everyone gets all drunk and teary. I said it was probably too late. Oh uh – sorry I’m not interrupting anything am I?”

“No it’s fine,” Will said with infinitely more patience than Nico had. It was probably good Will had answered since Nico’s answer would probably have been to shove Percy over the ledge.

“Go on in Neeks, I’ll just – finish this,” he held up the cigarette that by his own words he had no intention of smoking. Nico stared at him but Will just gestured like _go on_ and Nico had to let Percy pull him away.

 


	11. Chapter Ten - The Currency We've Spent (The Engagement Party Part 2)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Engagement Party Part 2. Will has something to tell Nico, though Nico's not sure he really wants to know.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter Title from Rent

Nico had been living with Will for over a month now and he could honestly say that even though there had been plenty of frustration he had never been so annoyed as when Percy pulled him back down into the club.

He glanced back and saw Will silhouetted against the night sky, blank and stiff and totally unreadable, the unlit cigarette limp in his hand. Then he was back inside the club, pulled through the crowds of people he barely knew to where Jason was waiting with a glass of champagne looking all grown up and serious.

Nico barely heard what he was saying as he spoke. It was probably heartfelt and meaningful but it was all Nico could do to stay still. He felt like he was vibrating and he wondered if his antsy-ness was as obvious as he felt it must be. He knew he kept glancing over at the shallow recess that hid the doorway to the fire escape, waiting for Will to re-emerge.

Suddenly there was clapping and Nico hastily joined in though his hands felt clumsy and it was difficult to manoeuvre around the glass that had been pressed into his hands and when had he taken that? Will still hadn't reappeared, unless he had and Nico had missed him. Jason was saying something and Percy was hugging him, actually looking a little teary despite his joking out on the fire escape. He gestured Nico closer and Jason nodded and gestured too and, with so many people watching Nico didn't really think he had any choice but to obey.

His legs felt weirdly shaky and he felt like he was moving through jelly, so distanced was he from his own body. His mind was completely elsewhere, still with Will who hadn't yet reappeared.

Nico jumped as he felt Percy throw an arm round his shoulder, drawing Nico close. People were staring at him, Jason too since Percy had also grabbed him and claimed his right shoulder, but Jason wasn't acting like a twitchy mouse. Nico was.

"One of my best men doesn't like the limelight very much," Percy said. "So I'll make this quick."

Nico thought it had already been too long. He saw a flash of blonde moving near the door and his heart jumped, but then the figure moved out of the shadow and he saw everything about him was all wrong and not Will at all.

"Most of you will know I haven't always had the easiest of times -"

Really he shouldn't be this panicked. Will wasn't his boyfriend. Whatever he was going to say it shouldn't affect him. Nothing would change, even if they fake broke up they'd still be friends which was also really what they were currently so -

"-don't think I would have gotten to this point -"

Who was he kidding? If Will suddenly decided they were over it would kill him. What if he'd found someone new? Someone better? Someone he could actually kiss and hug and be proper boyfriends with. Someone he'd _want_ all that with.

"-and I'm just trying to say thank you for being -"

Why was he even with Nico in the first place? More to the point why had he ever condoned this. He could have said no. He _should_ have said no.

"-and I really hope -"

He clenched his fists. He couldn't meltdown over his poor life choices. Not here, when it was Percy's night, not now when everyone was watching him.

"My best men everybody!"

There was clapping, a couple of whistles and whoops. Nico wanted to throw up. He happened to glance to the back of the crowd and saw Will leaning back against the bar. He raised his glance in slightly mocking salute and then mimed taking a deep breath with an eyebrow raised pointedly. Nico did, but he was sure it wasn't the air that calmed him.

"Nico you want to say anything?" Jason asked.

"He doesn't have to," Percy said hurriedly. "It's in the _I'm not doing anything_ clause of him agreeing to show up as best man."

Nico shrugged and though what he really wanted was to push through the crowd, drag Will back out onto the balcony and force him to say whatever he was going to say (as long as it wasn’t earth-shattering and likely to break them apart). But Percy was looking slightly tipsy and overly fond and Jason had that look in his eyes and Nico was beginning to realise how much the two of them actually meant to him.

"Just thanks I guess," he said instead of bolting, "for putting up with me."

Jason and Percy looked surprised but pleased and there was a group hug which he would have hated anyway but was doubly awful since Jason and Percy were both slightly out of it and not the most coordinated or aware of their own strength.

He'd hoped that was going to be it and he could escape but then Percy launched into a second speech about Annabeth and then Piper had stuff to say and Nico had to be content with being an impatient mess on the sidelines.

He drank too much champagne in an unsuccessful attempt to make the time pass quicker and he was wobbly when he was finally set free as the music got turned back up and half the crowd dispersed to the bar, the snack table. He joined them, making a beeline for his non-boyfriend. He  was almost there when he tripped over a discarded glass and fell in an embarrassingly cliche heap into Will's arms.

"There's several jokes here about you falling for me," Will commented as he let go. "But they all seem too obvious."

"Does commenting that they are too obvious make it ironic or just worse?" Nico asked. He'd gotten good at having internal crises while keeping up a light banter with Will and the part of his mind that wasn’t on the conversation was noting that Will hadn't exactly moved all that far away. In fact, he'd hadn't moved at all any further than was necessary to not be half carrying Nico anymore.

"Not sure," Will said. "Had that dilemma myself but I'm going with ironic."

Nico smiled. Will still hadn't moved back. He seemed tense, but determined and Nico was sure whatever he had been about to ask was about to come spilling out.

Sure enough Will caught hold of Nico's sleeve pulling him gently away from everyone else.

"Nico - oh my god shut up."

The rest of the sentence was apparently directed at his phone which had started ringing. Will closed his eyes as though praying for patience. He pulled his phone out his pocket, paling slightly when he looked at the screen.

"Do you need to get that?" Nico asked.

"No," Will said firmly, putting it back in his pocket.

"Are you sure?"

Will was definitely several shades paler than usual.

"Sure."

 _Liar_.

But maybe whatever crisis Will was currently going through and was about to tell him about, maybe it wasn't about him, maybe he could stop panicking and just hold Will's hand (metaphorically of course) through whatever nightmare was plaguing him.

Wait, maybe it was wrong to be wishing disaster on Will.

He hoped Will was okay.

But he also hoped that after tonight he was going to be okay himself.

This night had been such a bad idea.

"I need some air," Will said and Nico couldn't argue with that, not when Will looked so out of sorts.

"Do you want to go?" Nico asked.

"No," Will answered. "No, that's okay. You have fun, I just need a second." 

He vanished and Nico had to stop himself screaming in frustration.

"Everything alright Nico?"

"Never better Jason," Nico grumbled. "I'm having the time of my life."

Jason pulled a sympathetic face.

"Want to dance? Take your mind off it?"

"I'm over Percy," Nico snapped, "but I haven't suddenly morphed into a brand new person."

"Could have fooled me," Jason teased. "Never thought you'd be one for speech making and public speaking. Not even one line."

Nico raised an eyebrow but otherwise didn't comment because Jason was kind of right but he didn't want to admit that.

"This Will must really be something," Jason commented.

Nico turned to him, startled.

"What makes you say that?" he demanded, forgetting for a moment that they were ostensibly dating and wondering if his crush was really that obvious and if it was did that mean Will knew but didn't care and -

Spiralling. He was doing that spiralling thing again.

"Just meant you look more confident in yourself. If Will did that then he's alright in my books."

Nico shrugged.

"Where is he anyway?"

"Had to get some fresh air," Nico answered, noncommittally to make up for the fact he wasn't actually sure. He'd assumed back to the fire escape but he could be wrong.

"Is he avoiding me?" Jason teased.

"Just bad timing," Nico said. "I'm going to go see if he wants a drink."

He thought that maybe he was getting better at making smooth exits. Or maybe he was just getting drunker and was basking in false confidence.

Will wasn't on the fire escape which was the only source of fresh air that Nico knew of. Confused he circled back to the dance floor, wondering if they'd ever actually get any time together tonight. What was the point of recklessly tipping the balance scale into too far gone and ruined everything if he wasn't even going to get a good night out of it?  

"He's in the toilets."

"Huh?"

Piper laughed.

"How much have you had?" she said. "I'm Piper remember?"

Nico scowled at her.

"I know who you are Piper," he said. "I just can't read your mind. Who's in the toilets?"

"Will. Or at least tall, blonde and attractive is. That's Will right? And you're looking for him aren't you?"

"Is it that obvious?" Nico asked but he thanked her and made for the bathroom.

Will was there, back to the sinks. There was another guy there too, one of Annabeth's friends Nico thought. He was brown haired, tanned, too attractive to seem real so probably Will's type. He was also very much in Will's space.

Both looked too distracted to notice Nico's arrival. Will said something but it was too low for Nico to catch. The other guy suddenly leaned forward, kissing Will and Nico's heart stopped.

Except it was all wrong and Will was stiff, not responding at all. It took him a second but then he reacted shoving the other guy away, eyes hard and fierce. There was something vulnerable about him though, his posture was definitely defensive as though he was just waiting for the come-uppance for that and so Nico found himself leaping in before he could think.

"Hey!" he said. "Back off!"

The other guy looked him up and down and sniffed disdainfully. He pulled at his shirt sleeves like he was trying to decide whether punching Percy's Best Man would be worth the effort. Nico narrowed his eyes, shifted his posture. He might have been smaller, but he'd been in his fair share of fights and he was pretty sure he wouldn't be the worse off one if it came down to it.

The other guy gave up obviously deciding it _wasn’t_ worth the effort and stalked off, slamming the door behind him.

Will glanced at Nico. His eyes were red and Nico wondered if he'd been crying. Nico thought he was going to get Will to talk if it killed him but he thought screaming, shouting, yelling and demanding that Will just get it off his chest wasn't the best way to approach things.

"You didn't have to push him away just because I walked in," he joked instead. "We're not actually dating remember."

"Be kind of tacky to make out with some other guy at my boyfriend's best-friends engagement party," Will said with a shrug. He turned on the taps and splashed water on his face.

"Besides," he added casually, scrubbing at his eyes as though trying to hide the evidence. "He's not really my type."

"So apart from the jerk trying to get off with you everything alright?"

Will raised an eyebrow.

"Fine," he lied. "Why wouldn't it be?"

His phone vibrated, just a couple of times, obviously a text but Will reacted to the noise like it was a gun shot.

It was Nico's turn to raise an eyebrow.

"Okay," Will admitted. "I guess I'm not alright. I thought I could do this but -"

The door opened and a guy who looked oddly familiar walked in.

"Will!" he cried.

Connor, Nico realised. He was familiar because he'd seen him at a couple of Percy's other parties, but also because he looked a lot like his brother, Cecil.

"Didn't know you were here!"

He clearly had Cecil's enthusiasm too.

"How are you? How's my little brother? Still as much as an enormous pain as usual?"

"No," Will deadpanned. "I think he's got worse."

Connor grinned.

"Ah well I keep thinking maybe he'll like get lost for a year or something and we'll get a bit of quiet. Great party though right?"

Nico wriggled impatiently as Connor and Will chatted, gave a perfunctory smile that probably looked more like a death rictus when Will introduced him and managed not to pull Will out of the bathroom too quickly when he thought the allotted small talk time had passed.

Will's phone went off again as they left and Will did that stricken, guilty thing again.

"If that's your much more attractive better boyfriend you don't have to worry. I know we're not real. So I don't think it's actually cheating."

Will gave a small smile.

"I can safely promise you that that is not my secret boyfriend," Will said. And Nico believed him so that was one weight off his chest.

"Do you want to go?" Nico asked again.

Will ran a hand through his hair.

"I - no, I -"

Nico gave him a hard look and Will sighed.

"What do _you_ want?" Will asked.

Nico gave him an odd look. _I want you to tell me what's bothering you. I want you to tell me you've fallen in love with me. I want you to be happy and stop looking so stressed._

"I want to actually spend some time at this party," Nico said. "But if you need to go or -"

"No," Will said, so forcefully Nico almost took a step back. "That's what I want too."

"I thought you wanted to talk?" Nico asked, a little teasing, a little confused.

Will's phone vibrated again and Will looked momentarily  sick. Then he steeled himself.

"No," he said again. "I want to dance. I want to have a good time. I want to get really drunk and party like it's the end of the world. Talking can wait."

"Okay," Nico said. "We can do that."

Will did look better now he was dancing. Some of the colour had returned to his cheeks (though that might have been the flush of the alcohol) and he didn't seem as distant as he did before. In fact it was kind of the opposite and all of a sudden he was almost clingy, dancing closer to Nico than he had been before which fulfilled several wishes Nico didn't know he'd had and made everything, even the fact Will might possibly be about to break everything off, worth it.

Because Will was a really, really good dancer. Nico had kind of never appreciated that before. He made Nico want to dance with him, made everyone else melt into the background like nothing but Will mattered. And nothing but Will did matter. He just wanted to make Will okay again, make whoever kept texting go away and leave Will alone so Will could keep on smiling.

Oh hell he was getting sappy.

"You know Percy doesn't have a half bad taste in music," Will commented at the beginning of the latest guitar heavy song.

"I don't know," Nico said. "This one's not all that easy to dance to."

Will gave him a look.

"Oh I don't know," he said. "It's alright."

Maybe for Will who could dance like he was a professional and if his slight smirk was anything to go by, knew it. Nico had to try and keep his eyes on Will's face and not on his hips.

"What is it anyway?" Nico asked watching, slightly hypnotised, as Will mouthed along to the lyrics dreamily.

"Arctic Monkeys," Will said. "Not a fan?"

Nico watched Will lost in the song and realised he was lost alongside, him trapped in a happy little bubble that was probably going to get brutally shattered in the near future, but for now was a flimsy protection against the rest of the world and the future.

"It's alright."

Will smiled. "It's one of my favourites."

The song ended too quickly and was replaced by another similar song, the singers drawl the same but the beat slower. Will was closer to him now and Nico was dancing with him properly now, letting Will twirl him with a slightly wry smirk on his face.

"You were so lying when you said you couldn't dance," Will said, smirk not fading.

"Shut up Solace."

Will's smile grew, twisted and caught. He looked down.

"That thing I was going to tell you -"

Nico glanced at him. If anyone interrupted them now he thought he might just punch them.

"Look Octavian was right about me -"

"No he absolutely was n-"

"Don't interrupt," Will chided teasingly but his voice was gentle.

"I can't do this anymore. This pretending thing. It's not fair to you."

It was everything Nico had feared and more. His chest suddenly felt like it was made of stone, which was strange because his legs felt light and he thought if Will hadn't been holding on to him he might have fallen.

"You're doing a pretty good impression of pretending right now," Nico said snidely because he got defensive when he was hurt and it turned out when he was defensive he could go on the offensive. Will was doing that thing again though where he wasn't fighting back. More than anything he looked sad.

"I promised I'd take you home," Will said quietly. "But then I think we should probably talk. I-"

"Aww," Piper said, suddenly close by and Nico really did have to resist the urge to lash out. "You two look great together. Hey did you still want to meet Jason? He was with Percy a second ago, let me go grab him."

Nico closed his eyes and wished he could think of some way to stop this but Piper was already rushing off.

"Sorry," he said to Will. "Guess you're going to have to put up with all this a little while longer."

He wasn't quite sure if his tone was acidic, sad or desperate or some cocktail of all three but it hit Will hard.

"Nico I don't think you get -"

"Is he your boyfriend?" a new voice asked. "I didn't know you had a boyfriend."

Nico started, looked round at a tall girl he knew he had met before but couldn't remember anything more than that.

"Seriously though are you two actually dating? I mean what are _you_ ," he glanced at Will who seemed somewhat taken aback, "doing with _him_?"

Will glanced at Nico then back at the girl. Nico could feel everything crashing. He was almost tempted to admit everything to the vaguely familiar face, _no we're not dating it was all pretend and now it's over_.

But the Will leaned forward and kissed him and Nico couldn't think anymore.

He'd never kissed anyone before. Not really. There was one time at a party he'd somehow wandered into but it'd been with a girl in some weird disastrous experiment to try and get him over Percy and he'd felt nothing at all.

This was pretty much the opposite. He felt every emotion all at once: confusion because what the hell, anger at Will because what the hell, pain, joy, happiness.

It was too much and over far too quickly and then Will was back to staring at the random girl with a hard, even expression and all Nico had was a faint memory of Will's lips on his.

"Because I like him," Will said. "That's why."

The girl shrugged as though it didn't really matter anyway and wandered off but Nico felt like he couldn't breathe.

"What the hell?" he managed.

Will suddenly seemed to process what he'd done because he took a step backwards, and then another.

"Oh god," he said in a kind of strangled voice, eyes wide and full of regret. It reminded Nico of when he'd been obsessing over his one-night stand. Was that what Nico was now? A mistake? Something to regret?

"Will!" Nico said. "What the hell?"

Will shook his head, and turned and fled. Nico watched him go. He didn't know how he felt. He didn't know if he was feeling anything at all.

"Hey, he was here a minute ago," Piper said, bringing Jason over as she'd promised.

"Nico?"

Nico just shook his head and then he ran too.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Arctic Monkeys songs they were dancing to were Do I Wanna Know, and Number One Party Anthem.


	12. Chapter Eleven - I’m So Sorry I Was Blind

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nico has to deal with the fact that Will kissed him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title form You Were Always on My Mind - Pet Shop Boys

Nico had been living with Will for six weeks and six days. Sometimes it felt a lot shorter than that, like it was merely days since he’d first bumped into Will, covered in stupid black face paint and grinning that blinding grin. Other days it felt a lot longer like he couldn’t untangle Will Solace from his life, couldn’t remember a time without him.

Jason’s comment about how different he was kept popping up in his head like an annoying flashlight as he wound through the club, unsure whether he was looking for Will or running from him. He was different he realised, happier for one thing but also more confident, more _hopeful_. Will was different too, Nico thought. That was what had given him the tiny flicker of optimism that he tried to squash, deny and hide that maybe, just maybe, Will liked him back.

Except Will had kind of just killed that hope. Will clearly wasn’t interested and didn’t care about him at all and –

And then _why_ had he kissed him?

Was it really just for show?

He came to a stop in front of the bar and on impulse ordered a shot and downed it. He pressed his palms against his eyes, hard enough for splotches of colour to appear in the darkness.

Will’s actions made no sense. One minute he was insisting that they needed to stop pretending, the next kissing him and insisting to some random girl Nico had probably met once in his life that he liked Nico. It was infuriating and confusing but most of all it just hurt. His heart ached and more than anything he just wanted them back, when it had been easy between the two of them.

He found Will sitting in a booth with his legs drawn up to his chest, looking for all the world like he had when he was recovering from his one-night stand. Nico didn’t want to think about the implications of that even if they had already been running rampant in his mind.

Will looked up as Nico approached. He watched in silence as Nico sat down opposite him, still as a statue and just as impassive. Nico got the impression he was waiting to see what Nico would do which wouldn’t necessarily work out for him since Nico was waiting to see what Will would do.

Well one of them was going to have to make the first move.

The old Nico would never have gone first. The old Nico would never have risked his safety and happiness on a chance he could fix things. But Will was important enough to fight for, even if he was only fighting for the return of their friendship. He slid over a cupcake he’d picked up on impulse.

“I found you a dolphin,” he said.

Will looked down at the little sugar paste dolphin sitting atop a blue icing swirl. He didn’t laugh, he looked too miserable for that but the corner of his mouth did twitch as though he was fighting back a smile. And he did pull the cake towards him, picking off the dolphin and scooping off some of the icing with a finger. Nico tried not to be distracted by that.

“I’m sorry,” Will said quietly, addressing the dolphin.

“For kissing you,” he clarified, also to the dolphin.

“It was a shock,” Nico admitted neutrally, feeling like he was navigating a minefield.

“You looked like you were about to punch me,” Will said quietly, still not meeting Nico’s eyes.

“I didn’t-“ Nico protested, but then remembered the torrent of emotions that had coursed through him, adding to that the fact he had a resting bitch face and realised that that may have been true. He tailed off and gave a self-conscious shrug which Will didn’t see because his eyes were still firmly fixed on the table.

“Look can we just pretend tonight didn’t happen?” Nico asked because running away from problems was easier than trying to fix them. “Can we just go back to being friends?”

Will looked up then, his expression for an instance like he’d been shot, like Nico had just stuck a dagger into his back. Then his phone went off again which had him gritting his teeth, fury and fear warring on his features before he managed to school his expression back into something neutral.

“Sure,” he said lightly, though his body language suggested that the words were a supreme effort. Still it was an admission that they weren’t over, totally anyway, and he’d take that, and ignore everything else and the way it hurt. 

“Right,” Nico said. “Okay. Good. That’s good.” 

Will raised an eyebrow.

“Are you babbling Di Angelo?” he asked.

“No.”

“Are you sure?”

“Shut up Solace.”

They grinned at each other and just for a moment everything felt normal again.

“So,” Will asked, shattering the spell. “What now?”

“Well my earlier comment about actually trying to enjoy this party still stands,” Nico said, only very slightly snidely.

Will rolled his eyes.

“I danced with you,” he protested. “And then promptly ruined everything I’ll admit. We still do need to talk but you’re right we should –“

His phone vibrated again.

“Why don’t you just turn it off?” Nico asked. “And who wants you that desperately? That’s got to be what like six, seven texts?”

Will shrugged sharply.

“I’ve not been counting,” he said suddenly all angles and sharp pointy bits that Nico was likely to impale himself on. Even at his most reticent, Will had never been spikey before so Nico backed off quickly and wondered if this mysterious and sudden aversion to his phone was one of the things Will had unexpectedly decided they needed to discuss.

“So we’re going to go back out,” Nico said in exploratory tones. “And do normal party things? No more drama?”

“There’s no need to sound so disbelieving,” Will said but he was back to attempting to be his usual self, so that was something.

He smiled, the slightly crooked one that was more like a smirk and had Nico’s insides feeling liquid and his knees feel weak and his head curse him out for being so cliché.

“No more drama,” Will agreed quietly. “I’ll even turn the phone off if you really want.”

They headed back to the dance floor which was now more crowded than ever. Despite the fact they had to dance even closer than before it felt completely different once again. That distance between him and Will was back, and every now and then Nico caught Will looking at him intently with an expression a mix between guilt and sadness.

But of course it was different. Before they were dancing as “boyfriends”. Now they were dancing as friends.

 _Friends_. Nico could handle this. After all, nothing had actually changed. They’d been friends before. They were friends again. He’d extracted that promise out of Will and whatever bombshell Will still had left to drop, he’d just drag that promise out of him again.

Nothing had changed.

Nothing except the kiss.

It was the one thing he couldn’t make sense of. Every single one of Will’s other actions make at least some sort of sense: he had some secret he wanted to talk about, for some reason it was also a reason why they shouldn’t pretend date and besides Will didn’t like him and pretending he did wasn’t fair. But in all of that he just couldn’t see where the kiss factored in. If Will hadn’t apologised for it, he could almost believe he’d imagined it.

But he hadn’t. And now all he could think about was kissing Will again. How would it feel when it wasn’t unexpected, when he wasn’t angry and confused? Going back to being friends was so hard when all he could think of was what it would be like if everything they pretended was real.

The thought had him downing another vodka, and then another when the first dulled the raw edges of his heart ever so slightly and sent into a dull haze where everything was not okay as such but manageable because it was distant and removed.

He was starting to realise how drunk he was when he found himself singing along to songs he didn’t actually know, but the realisation really hit when he stumbled, and Will had to catch him.

“Okay?” Will asked and the concern in his eyes was real.

Nico tried to say yes, but then shook his head.

“What time is it?” he asked instead.

Will checked his watch.

“Nearing midnight,” he replied.

“Really?” Nico asked. “Already?”

Will shrugged.

“Time flies.”

Nico nodded distractedly, wondering when the flashing lights had suddenly gotten so bright.

“You think I’ve showed my face long enough?” he asked, stumbling again. Will had a hold of his arm now and from his firm grip Nico didn’t think he was likely to let go any time soon.

“I think so,” Will said. “From everybody’s reactions you’ve exceeded expectations by far.”

He paused and gave a wry grin.

“On many levels.”

“Shut up Solace,” Nico said.

“Why is the room spinning?” he added moments later, trying not to think about Will’s hand on his arm.

“That would be the vodka,” Will said sounded amused.

“Why are you okay?” Nico asked a little sulkily. It really was hitting him hard now and this was probably his fault for thinking he could drink his problems away.

“Didn’t drink as much,” Will said and he was _looking_ amused too now which Nico did not appreciate.

“And I’ve also eaten today. That helps.”

“Stop looking so smug,” Nico instructed him. “ _Oh I’m Will Solace, I remember to eat_.”

Will laughed and he looked so surprised by his outburst that Nico had to laugh too. Except it sounded a lot more like hysterical giggling which had Will pulling him towards the door.

“Come on Di Angelo,” he said. “There’s probably a pizza place open somewhere. Let’s get some food in you.”

“You’re usually the lightweight,” Nico pointed out. “This seems unfair.”

Will just laughed.

“Wait there,” he told Nico, depositing him on a nearby chair. “I’m going to go get my coat.”

Nico nodded and watched him walk off, wondering idly if he could take Will up on the DEFCON offer of kissing in front of everybody and still claim they were friends who had stopped pretending. The thought was a ridiculous one and confirmed that he had definitely drunk far too much.

“You off?”

He turned and saw blonde hair and a blurry face which he eventually identified as Jason.

“I turn into a pumpkin at midnight,” Nico said sagely. “Got to go before then.”

“How drunk are you?” Jason asked with mixed glee and worry.

“It was all good til that last vodka,” Nico told him. “I was drowning the pain. Bad idea.”

Jason raised an eyebrow.

“I never met Will,” he commented carefully as though he was now negotiating the same metaphorical minefield Nico had previously been traversing. “Is everything okay between you two?”

“Sure,” Nico said. “We’re great. Good. Fine.”

“Right.”

Jason was studying him minutely. He was too perceptive for his own good and Nico found himself sobering ever so slightly as another ghostly memory of Will’s kiss along with a phantom stab of pain struck him.

“Seriously Jace, it’s all good. I’m just a bit tired.”

“Tell me you’re not going home alone?” Jason said. “Not sure I trust you to make it back in this state. Do you want me to call a cab?”

Nico shook his head.

“I’m going home with Will,” he said.

Jason sighed but he couldn’t really argue, and he shrugged.

“Look after yourself Nico,” he said, making it sound like a direct order. Nico had to resist the temptation to salute.

“And we’ll have to meet up soon okay?” Jason said to his back as Nico wobbled off in the direction of the cloakroom. “You, me, Piper and Will.”

Nico found himself agreeing distractedly and that would just have to be a problem he dealt with some other time.

He found Will pulling on his coat.

“I thought I told you to stay put,” Will said. “I’ve spent enough time tonight looking for you for you to be wandering off again.”

His smirk really was distracting and made Nico want to kiss him. He took a step closer, almost without realising.

“Hey,” Nico protested. “I think you’ll find _I_ spent most of my night looking for _you_.”

“You’re drunk Nico,” Will teased. “Your powers of recollection are shot.”

Will’s expression was devious and beautiful, and Nico forgot himself and found himself leaning closer. Will’s expression flickered.

“You’re drunk Nico,” he said more firmly this time, stepping back.

Right. Will didn’t want him.

The thought was a cold knife in the pit of his stomach, more sobering than the cold night air as they stepped outside. They were both quiet in the taxi, each lost in their own thoughts and distracted. Nico was busy trying to rebuild boundaries and failing miserably. He couldn’t even begin to guess where Will’s thoughts were.

He’d spent plenty of time with Will, and they’d walked together through chilly night air plenty of times. It had never felt awkward before though, never felt like neither of the could work out how to be. The night had tangled their relationship up until Nico could no longer neatly divide real and pretend. He’d insisted they still be friends but then didn’t feel like friends anymore.

Will kept glancing at him. The light struck his face, deep shadows making him look more angular and sharp than usual. He wasn’t quite right, wasn’t quite Nico’s Will and for a minute Nico was scared they’d fractured too completely to heal properly even as friends. The bitterness was still there, and the anger and the confusion but mostly he just felt desperate for some kind of normal.

He didn’t notice he was shivering until Will shrugged off his jacket and offered it to Nico. Nico took it gratefully, but surprised because he couldn’t quite work out where that gesture came within the broken lines of friends, and pretending, and stopping pretending.

The sleeves were slightly too long and he pushed them up to his elbows. That made Will smile, a soft quiet, slightly sad smile. Nico felt his heart twist. He searched for something to say, something to take the edge off walking side by side.

“You said pizza.”

“I think there’s a restaurant nearby that might still be open,” Will said. “Else there’s desert. We could get ice cream at that place near home.”

Nico remembered that place. He had liked the ice cream.

“I’ll settle for ice cream,” he said magnanimously. “But you owe me pizza.”

Will smiled and again it was sad and a little distant.

“I’ll see what I can do,” he promised. “Maybe tomorrow when you wake up hung over and moody.”

 “I’m not moody,” Nico complained.

“Seriously?” Will asked. “You’re really going to try and claim that?”

It didn’t quite have the usual ease and levity. The awkwardness was still there. But it was a start.

Nico had gone off the thought of food entirely by the time they sat down in the warm glow of the ice cream parlour. He ordered a small sundae and would have let Will steal the cherry off the top even if it didn’t make him smile. Nico noted, for what he was sure wasn’t the first time, that Will’s smile was pure sunshine and he began to realise just how much trouble he was in.

 _Act natural,_ he ordered himself. _Friends. If you screw this up you lose him completely._

It was all very well, but Will made it hard to act natural.  He kept stealing glances at Nico from under his lashes. When Nico caught him, his cheeks flushed and Nico had to stop himself screaming in frustration because how dare Will be so beautiful and so unavailable.

Nico was letting his sundae melt for the most part, occasionally stabbing it forlornly. Will got through a third of his own before he finally put his spoon down with slightly more force than was necessary. It bounced on the table and Will winced.

The sound rattled through Nico’s head and Nico winced too.

“Let’s get out of here,” he said. “Desert wasn’t’ the best idea.”

He didn’t really know what he’d expected. Something like the last time, when it had been him and Will against the world. This time paled against expectations and it had him feeling irritated and disappointed and angry at himself all at once.  Suddenly all he wanted was to get home and go to sleep and pretend everything that had happened was a bad dream dredged up from a subconscious that was scared of being abandoned.

Will looked similarly drained, and was equally quiet. Every time Nico glanced at him to check on him, he was staring straight ahead, face drawn in the lamplight. It made his next comment all the more surprising.

“I’m not doing this!” he said, stopping in the middle of the pavement and glaring at Nico with an intensity Nico didn’t really expect.

Since his last outburst along those lines hadn’t ended well Nico closed his eyes and steeled himself for the next heartbreak.

“Will,” he said softly, trying not to sound too much like he was pleading. “You said we’d go back to being friends.”

Will scowled, looking mutinous.

“Well I can’t,” he said. “You’re making it too hard.”

“How is this my fault?” Nico demanded, fury rushing up to mask the hurt. “You’re the one who kissed me! You’re the one making absolutely no sense! _I_ was trying to make it easier.”

Will’s expression darkened further, and he folded his arms tightly across his chest.

“So stop looking at me like that.”

“Like what?” Nico snapped.

“Like you want to kiss me!” Will looked wretched now. Nico felt slightly sick, and it wasn’t just the chocolate sauce/vodka combination. He should have known not to get drunk enough for Will to see how much he wanted their fake relationship to be real. He should have known.

“I-?” Nico began but he gave up. He was at an utter loss.

“Okay,” he said instead. “Alright. I’m sorry. Look earlier you said we’d forget tonight can’t we just –“

“No.”

Nico drew back slightly at the force in Will’s tone.

“No Nico I am not going to forget it. I don’t _want_ to go back to being _friends_. I _like_ you. And I thought you wanted liked me too but now you’re –“

Nico felt like the world had dropped out from under him.

“Wait what?”

Will stopped talking to give him a slightly confused look.

“I like you,” he said. He sounded unsure.

“But why didn’t you say so?” Nico demanded.

“I did. I kissed you. And said _I like you_. And _you_ said _let’s be friends_.”

Will’s tone was mocking but it had taken on a lighter quality now.

“When you said you wanted to stop pretending –“ Nico said realisation slowly dawning.

Will stared at him and then without warning started to laugh quietly.

“You are an idiot Neeks,” he said. 

Nico took a step forward.

“And when you said it wasn’t fair on me -?”

“To keep pretending. Yeah, well I’m not everything you think I am. But also it’s not fair for me to pretend not to like you. Not when I thought you might like me back.”

Nico shook his head in disbelief.

“Oh god,” he said quietly. “I _am_ an idiot.”

Will’s smile flickered.

“We could blame it on the alcohol if you like,” he suggested and Nico laughed hollowly. 

"I'm never drinking again," he said.

Will was really close. His eyes were bright and so blue. Nico found himself once again leaning forward and this time Will closed the space between them. And in that moment everything was okay again.

 

 


	13. Chapter Twelve - To Tell Me Who You Are

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Will opens up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title from Rent - Pet Shop Boys

Nico had been living with Will for long enough to have dreamt up quite a few scenarios in which Will professed his love. He hadn’t been prepared for that to become a reality, for Will to actually admit that he liked him. After so long dreaming up similar scenarios in which Percy was the one confessing, Nico had thought that Will would be a similar painful and enduring fantasy. A dream. Nothing more.

And yet here they were.

The kiss was over too quickly and Nico found himself brought back to reality, aware they were blocking a pavement, aware the world was cold and dark. But Will was still close. And if Nico wanted he could kiss him again. 

_He could kiss him again._

Will was his now. That was amazing and terrifying and scary. What happened now? He’d never thought they’d get this far. Were they now a real thing? What happened next?

Will touched his cheek gently.

“Nico? You okay?”

Nico blinked.

 “I knew I was a good kisser,” Will teased. “But I didn’t think I was hypnotising…”

“Shut up Solace,” Nico said, a knee jerk reflex.

“I was thinking,” he added, slightly defensively.

“Overthinking more like,” Will said, but he seemed slightly nervous. “Are we okay? Was I not supposed to kiss –?”

“No!” Nico said, a little louder than he’d intended in his sudden panic and need to divert Will from that line of thought. “We’re good. This is good.”

Will’s smile flickered, bright and happy and then extinguished again in a moment.

“Good,” he said. “So then can we go home? Someone stole my jacket and I’m freezing.”

Nico shoved his shoulder gently as Will smirked.

“Wait though,” Nico said.

Will looked a little puzzled. Nico just gave him a slightly nervous smile, and then stood up on tiptoes and kissed him, just to prove to himself he could. Will’s smile when he pulled back was blinding.

When they got home Nico hung awkwardly in the kitchen, trying to make getting a glass of water last as long as possible. He suddenly felt awkward in his own home. Did Will expect him to act different now they were dating. He still wasn’t entirely sure they were dating.

Will didn’t look any more at ease. He smiled seemed worried as he sat himself down on the edge of the sofa, tapping his fingers against his knees.

“So?” Nico asked when the silence became unbearable. “What now?”

Will looked up at him and gave half a smile.

“I need to go,” Will said.

Nico’s expression must have shown how he felt about that because Will raised his hands quickly.

“I promise I’ll explain everything in the morning. I don’t really deserve your trust but can you hold out one more night?”

 Nico still wasn’t sure what Will thought he’d done that was so bad, which seemed kind of ironic since he’d gone into this whole sharing an apartment thing thinking Will might be a murderer. So he shrugged.

“I told you I trust you. I meant it. And for the record the last time you told me Octavian was right about you it turned out you felt guilty about volunteering at a children’s’ hospital. You’re not exactly the godfather.”

Will’s smile was a little too pale to be real but it was nice he made the effort.

“Okay well hold onto that thought?” he said. It sounded like a question.

“I’ll prepare myself for the worst,” Nico said with a slight eye roll that brought Will’s smile flickering back.

“Promise you’ll be okay?” Nico said. He felt vulnerable asking it, revealing how much he’d come to care about Will in the few weeks he’d known him. It wasn’t like him, and it felt strange, but at the same time it was strangely comforting to reveal his vulnerability and to see Will soften in response. His (real!?) boyfriend came towards him and gently cupped his cheek.

“I am pretty sure I’ll be okay,” Will said, though Nico noticed it wasn’t quite a promise.

“It’s like one in the morning Will,” Nico pointed out. “Who knows what maniacs might be out –“

“You mean like us ten minutes ago?”

Nico gave him a look.

“Do you really have to go?”

He didn’t know why he was being so reluctant. Will had gone out plenty of times at odd hours and he’d never cared before other than to wonder what on earth he was doing. And he didn’t particularly want to be the clingy boyfriend especially when he’d only been the boyfriend for a grand total of approximately fifteen minutes.

But something felt off. Will had been acting strangely all night, and Nico had never seen him so jumpy about his phone before. The universe had a habit of taking away the people that Nico cared about in new and inventive ways and it would be just typical for the world to sabotage his first relationship minutes after it came into being.

Besides Will looked frightened. Really, truly frightened. Nico didn’t want Will to be frightened. He didn’t want Will anywhere near anything that would frighten him.

“I’ll be back,” Will promised. “I will.”

Nico had to be content with that and let him go.

Nico put off going to bed. The logical part of his mind told him that sleep would fill the hours between now and Will being back better than endless worrying and other filler tasks could. But he knew he was too jittery to even get close to slumber. It wasn’t just the fact he wasn’t completely sure what his stupid boyfriend was up to that made him so jittery. There was also the fact he had a stupid boyfriend at all.

He hadn’t had much time to process the events of the evening. Will had been up and down and all over the place and during the party Nico had felt a million different emotions. It had been a rollercoaster and he wasn’t entirely sure he’d got off yet.

The apartment was tidy, the tv was boring in the dead of night and putting on a dvd didn’t feel right without Will. There was nothing he could do that distract him from his thoughts and so he alternated between pacing in front of the tv, watching the clock tick by in what felt like slow motion, and lying on his bed straining to hear the sounds of Will’s key in the lock that never came.

By the time the sun came streaming through the windows he was starting to feel desperate. Whenever Will had snuck out before he was usually back way before Nico woke. He tried eating breakfast to settle his nerves but gave up after two bites. He couldn’t tell of he was hungover or sick with worry or both but even the dry toast made him want to run to the nearest toilet.

He crashed out at about ten o clock when, despite the horrible clawing feeling in the pit of his stomach, his eyes grew too heavy and he lost the battle with sleep. He slept fitfully, and dreamt dreams he couldn’t recall when he opened his eyes.

Though aching, tired and generally in a worse state than when he’d fallen asleep, he got up so fast he nearly fell, crashing out into the living room. He was fully expecting to see Will watching TV in the living room, or at least tucked up in bed. But the living room was cold and lifeless and completely empty. Will’s door was ajar, but its position didn’t look any different from when they’d left the night before.

Will usually slept with it shut.

He pushed at the door anyway, letting it swing open. Sunlight came in slants through the half open curtains. It fell onto the bed which was messily and probably hastily made but didn’t look like it had been slept in or on. Will’s clothes from the day before were on the floor, the red tshirt he’d been wearing before he’d changed for the party, but Nico couldn’t see Will’s party clothes anywhere which proved it. Will hadn’t come back. 

Nico didn’t scream, or shout, or cry, or throw anything. It was a close thing, but he very calmly shut Will’s door and walked back into the living room focusing very hard on each step, making each one very deliberate and measured because if he didn’t have something to concentrate on he knew he’d lose it altogether.

By midday he was desperate enough to seek help. He was hesitant to go to the police firstly because he didn’t think they’d much care that Will Solace, an individual who regularly stayed out all night at parties, had yet to come home. (But they didn’t know Will like Nico did and this was unusual). He also didn’t want to get them involved yet on the off chance that Will really was involved in something bad.

He’d rung Will’s phone enough times now to know that Will was either ignoring him or away from his phone, neither of which were comforting prospects. He thought about trying to contact Cecil or Lou Ellen instead but he realised he didn’t know their numbers. He spent an unproductive ten minutes attempting to stalk them on facebook only to realise he wasn’t even friends with Will, let alone Will’s friends. The thought was weirdly sobering. How was it he and his boyfriend weren’t even facebook friends?

True, Nico never used facebook but still. It did remind him that despite the fact he’d fallen hard and fast, he really had only known Will for a matter of weeks. It felt like much longer but, in any other relationship with anyone ever Nico would only be on nodding terms at this point. What was it about Will that was so captivating.

He shook the thoughts out of his head and tried to squash his doubts. Will wasn’t a murderer. He’d been down that particular train of thought before and it pretty much inevitably led to an embarrassing wreck where Will turned out to be an impossibly good person who spent his time with sick children for free. He wasn’t going to fall into his old habits. He was going to find Will in a calm and rational manner with minimal yelling at a higher power and then he and Will were going to sit down and they were going to _talk_.

There was a number for Kayla up on the wall in the kitchen and Nico thought long and hard about ringing her. He didn’t want to worry her, he _really_ didn’t want to worry her, but if there was a chance she knew where Will was or how to contact him shouldn’t he take it? On the other hand he barely knew Kayla, they’d been briefly introduced when she’d come over after he hospital appointment but had been gone by the time Nico had awoken the next morning. Would she think it was weird him calling her? How much did she know about him and Will? Was she part of the lie that they were dating or had Will told her what used to be the truth?

It was impossible to know either way but when it got to 1pm and Will still hadn’t turned up, Nico gritted his teeth and keyed in the numbers.

Kayla answered, cheerful and chirpy and Nico found he couldn’t speak. He couldn’t worry Kayla. He couldn’t do that to Will’s sister, it wasn’t fair. He hung up without speaking, ignoring Kayla’s confused hellos.

But then if something horrible really had happened to Will and Kayla could help would she ever forgive him if he didn’t tell her, and then that led to them not getting to him in time? Nico knew how painful it was to lose a sibling. He’d hated Percy for years over his part in Bianca’s death, and that was all while loving him. If Nico was, however indirectly, responsible for Will’s death would Kayla end up sad and alone and bitter and consumed with rage like Nico had been?

Was that fair to her?

Except Will wasn’t dead. He wasn’t. He couldn’t be. Nico was just letting his imagination run away with him. He’d come back through the door any minute. Any minute.

The ringing of the phone made him jump. He picked it up, mind immediately going to kidnapping and extortions and how on earth was he going to pay the ransom? Will’s parents were presumably loaded, he’d have to go to contact them somehow –

“Hello? Will?”

The words made Nico jump again, he hadn’t even realised he’d pressed the button to answer the call.

“Will?” Kayla demanded again, more insistently this time. “What’s going on? Are you there?”

“No it’s me,” Nico said, trying to keep his voice steady. “Nico.”

“Nico?” Kayla sounded confused for a second but then was back, cheerful as she’d been when she thought she’d been calling her brother.

“Nico! Hey! Did you try to call? I tried answering but the line went dead.”

Nico took a breath, dug his nails into his palm and wondered exactly what he was going to say and how he was going to say it.

“Yeah,” he lied. “I couldn’t hear you, I thought maybe it hadn’t connected properly.”

“Weird,” Kayla said. “That’s like some horror movie kind of stuff. Still I’m here now? Everything okay over there? Will mentioned you guys had some party thing coming up? He wanted my opinion on what smart casual meant.”

The idea of Will consulting his little sister about his fashion choices for Percy’s engagement party was so ridiculous and so endearing that Nico had to stifle a sound that wasn’t quite either a laugh or a sob. Will usually dressed so easily and effortlessly and didn’t need or want anyone else’s input.

_He was worried because he was trying to impress you moron_ , a sardonic little voice in his head said. The thought made his heart clench and him feel sick all over again.

“Yeah it was last night,” Nico said vaguely. “We left kind of early and –“

“-and?” Kayla prompted after a couple of seconds silence.

_And I’m scared he’s in real trouble._

“and I was wondering if you had a number for Lou Ellen or Cecil?”

“Oh yeah sure hold on!”

Nico sighed and closed his eyes. He wrote Cecil’s number down on a scrap of paper and then quickly ended the conversation before Kayla could ask why he’d wanted it.

He fiddled with the paper while he tried to figure out how best to explain the situation without Cecil switching from class clown to the clown from It and trying to strangle him down the phone. He was dialling when he heard the door open.

He dropped the phone, turned, and was out of his seat before he knew what he was doing.

“What the hell have you been doing? Where the hell have you been? Oh god Will I was so worried I thought you’d died or –“

He came to an abrupt halt inches away from Will. He reached up and touched his cheek carefully, avoiding the blood and the bruising just under his eye.

“Will?”

Will shook his head. He was trembling. There was blood on his shirt, a lot of blood, though it was mostly hidden by his jacket.

“It’s not mine,” Will whispered. “It’s not –“

His voice cracked, and he sounded on the edge of panic. Nico gripped his shoulder.

“Will,” he said. “Focus. Let’s get you changed yeah?”

Will looked for a moment like he had some cocky response on the tip of his tongue, probably about Nico trying to get him out his clothes. But then Will looked down at the floor and gave the barest hint of a nod and Nico began to realise just how upset he was.

 Nico waited, sitting on Will’s bed while Will showered. Comforting people really wasn’t his thing and several times he nearly caved and called Cecil to come over and take his place instead. But then he thought about how Jason had probably felt the same way all those times Nico hadn’t known if he wanted to shout or cry or murder somebody. So he stayed and the look of surprised relief which quickly gave way to gratitude on Will’s face when he saw Nico waiting for him made Nico wonder why he’s ever considered leaving in the first place.

Will came and sat next to Nico, shoulder to shoulder. He was still trembling and Nico wondered vaguely if he was in some kind of shock and, if he was, what on earth he was supposed to do about that.

“Are you okay?” he asked, hoping that if Will needed medical attention he would know about it.

Will smiled shakily.

“Yeah,” he said softly.

“Liar.”

Will nodded as though that was a fair enough point.

“I guess I owe you an explanation,” he said quietly.

“Be nice,” Nico said. “But not actually necessary. If you don’t want to talk about it -“

“No,” Will said firmly, sitting up properly. “It’s okay. I want to tell you. It’s only fair.”

He closed his eyes, obviously steeling himself.

“So everyone assumes I’m really rich because of my mum – “

Nico made a mental note to ask for clarification on who his mum was when Will wasn’t in the middle of an obviously difficult and heart fealt speech.

“-but actually I don’t have very much money at all. So when Kayla first got sick I was really worried about how I was going to pay off all her bills.

I always knew I wanted to be a doctor and so I knew a lot of first aid and I’m not really sure how it happened but I kind of ended up working for this guy patching up his guys when they got hurt.”

“So you work for the mob?” Nico asked. It sounded a bit harsher than he’d intended, his words sharp with worry. “I mean I’m not judging but what if you got hurt?”

“I don’t think they’re the mob exactly,” Will said, but he didn’t sound sure. “But it does worry me. I mean what if I’m fixing people who then go out and hurt others?”

Will looked really concerned and it was obviously a question he’d asked himself before. Nico didn’t have an answer for him on that particular ethical dilemma but he did know that no matter how Will might say Octavian was right, Nico would never agree.

“I don’t know,” Nico admitted. “But you did it for Kayla. That doesn’t make you a bad person. Not in my book.”

Will looked so surprised and Nico realise that for all their differences they were very alike in some important ways. Nico too had trouble believing anyone would accept him.

“Someone died today,” Will said quietly. “I couldn’t save them. I feel terrible. But I also feel kind of relived. He was the worst of them and –“

Will’s voice cracked again and he shook his head. He was still shivering so Nico hesitantly put an arm round Will’s shoulders in silent comfort.

“It wasn’t your fault,” Nico told him firmly hoping that if he was assured enough Will would believe him. Will gave him a small smile.

“I can’t believe you’re still here,” he admitted. “I thought you would have run for the hills.”

Nico shrugged.

“I just want to prove Octavian wrong,” he said lightly.

“How long for?” Will asked. “Like are you going to have to marry me to prove a point?”

“Oh no I couldn’t do that,” Nico said. “The engagement party was enough for me. I’m not doing any gatherings larger than about four people ever again.”

“We could get married in Vegas. No guests.”

“Bit presumptuous,” Nico said with a sniff. “We haven’t even been on a date.”

“I took you to that restaurant.”

“Doesn’t count. We weren’t actually dating.”

“You’re going to be high maintance, I can tell,” Will said with a slight smile. “Handbags, designer shoes –“

Nico laughed.

“I can’t think of anything less me,” he said. 

Will smiled, a tired smile but a real one. He let his head fall onto Nico’s shoulder, eyes closing. Nico thought he’d fallen asleep and he was near drop off too, having been up half the night worrying about his stupid boyfriend. 

“Nico?” Will said after a moment, not bothering to open his eyes. 

“Yeah?”

“Thanks.”

Nico smiled though Will didn’t see it.

“You’re welcome.”


	14. Chapter Thirteen - We Don't Have to Fall Apart, We Don't Have to Fight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dating Will isn't everything Nico thought it would be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title from What Have I Done to Deserve This - Pet Shop Boys

Nico had been living with Will for just over two months and they’d yet to go on a date. They’d been on all sorts of pretend dates that had probably actually – all things considered – technically been real dates if real dates could be described as an outing that two people who liked each other went on. But they’d never been on a date when there had also been an acknowledgement between the two of them that they were two people that liked each other. Nico had a feeling Will wanted to change that. Meanwhile Nico was trying to avoid that at all costs.

He was doing okay at avoidance for the moment because exam season turned up and Will could be quite easily distracted by shoving a textbook his way and asking if he was quite sure he knew what the colon did. And then Will would panic even though of course he knew and Nico would feel like the worst person in history. And he’d let his boyfriend sink deeper into exam stress as he desperately researched something he’d known probably since like fifth grade, Nico would have to slink off into self-imposed exile.

It wasn’t that he didn’t want to go on a date with Will. But he’d never been on a date before and what if he messed it up? He didn’t know what he was supposed to do, how he was supposed to act, any of the etiquette. Dates had etiquette right? Flowers and chocolate and did he have to walk Will home? They lived together, how would that work?

Fake-dating had been a minefield of drama and pain and potential heartbreak, but at least the stakes were lower. If they broke up they’d just be what they were in reality: friends. Now if, and when, Nico screwed up there was no guarantee they’d automatically just reset as friends and housemates. He didn’t want to lose Will.

Except, he realised as he found his boyfriend asleep under a mound of textbooks, that was kind of already happening. Will was present enough, but he wasn’t exactly Will. He was a zombie who was pale and drawn and who had conversations in which he only registered about thirty per cent of what the other person was saying. Nico hadn’t seen him smile properly since they’d first agreed to stop pretend dating and start real dating.

When he found a stack of chocolate bars, a half empty litre bottle of some particularly lurid and probably potent energy drink, and two empty cups of coffee next to his somehow-managing-to-sleep-despite-all-that boyfriend he decided enough was enough. He removed the junk food and threw the energy drink down the sink and vowed he’d listen to Will tell him about how _humans_ _actually did need vitamin D and no Nico wasn’t exempt and no he wasn’t a vampire either_ , if he could just get Will to remember what a vegetable was for half a second.

Take out wasn’t exactly the healthiest option but it was probably better than whatever Will was surviving off of, so he ordered Tai. He whiled away the time until it came playing tetris on his phone trying not to think about how the last time Will had been in the grips of exam stress he’d ended up taking Nico out because Nico had looked slightly sad. And now in exam stress take two, Nico was returning the favour by _adding_ to Will’s panic all because he was too scared to actually date his boyfriend.

Will woke as Nico was serving, and almost immediately threw a hissy fit when he saw Nico had hidden the books.

“You need a break Solace,” Nico told him sternly. He shoved a plate of food Will’s way. “Now shut up and eat something that’s not artificially green.”

Will stared at him in slight incomprehension for a moment and then suddenly he gave a small smile. It wasn’t a patch on his old grin but it was a start.

“I never knew you cared,” he said.

“I’m your boyfriend you moron.”

Saying it sent Nico’s heart into a flutter. He tried to remain casual but sometimes it was hard to remain casual when he remembered that Will – inexplicably – was his. Will might have noticed, or he might not have because he was bleary eyed and already vaguely distracted by the fact he didn’t have a textbook within two feet of him. Either way he started eating.

“You’re right,” he said as though Nico’s proclamation was an epiphany and not something that had been common knowledge, if new territory, to the both of them for at least two weeks.

“Does that mean I get to boss you around too?” Will asked. “Can you get my phone? I want to check with Cecil about this pathogen thing that came up –“

“No,” Nico said firmly. “I’m not enabling you anymore. You know this stuff. And you’re going to graduate and become a kick ass, famous, rich doctor and I’m going to be your trophy husband and spend all your money and have an affair with your secretary.”

“Isn’t it usually the working one who has the affair with the secretary?”

“Well maybe we’re both having an affair with the secretary,” Nico said, a little exasperated, a little amused and mostly relieved Will was playing along and hadn’t fixated on pathogens.

“And he’s playing us both,” Will said. “And is going to try and extort us.”

“He’s working for the government,” Nico said.

“Or an underground sect of freedom fighters.”

“Or the mob,” Nico said and winced slightly as that evidently hit a little too close to home for Will. He held his breath, wondering if this was the beginning of the end. Will put down his plate, looking slightly pale.

“It’s alright though,” he said. “Because we at the last minute remember our love and take down the government slash mob slash freedom fighters.”

Nico let out the breath he hoped Will hadn’t noticed him holding.

“Because we’re just so awesome. Like blockbuster film awesome,” Nico agreed liked he hadn’t just been prophesising the collapse of their relationship. “And then we go on a second honeymoon to somewhere exotic and I remind you what a moron you were to be worrying over exams when you so clearly have got this.”

“But –“

“No,” Nico said firmly. “You need a break. We’ll go out. Come on you can take a day. I’ll plan it.”

Will’s eyes began to sparkle so if Nico wasn’t so immediately focused on the sense of impending doom and horrified dread that was overtaking him, he’d be almost glad he’d just kind of let his mouth promise to organise a date.

“That – wouldn’t be awful,” Will said.

Nico nodded vaguely in agreement and pretended like he was listening when Will began talking about some TV show Nico was pretty sure he hadn’t seen.

He had to plan a date. A date. He’d never done that before. (The daydreams he’d had about himself, and Percy didn’t count.)

He couldn’t ask Will what he wanted to do because Pride (and also because having deigned to eat Will had retrieved his books and was once again descending into the anxiety-ruled alternate universe where there was a chance he wouldn’t pass all his exams with flying colours).

Nico tried not to think of their first date as a test.

Except it kind of was.

It wasn’t just that everything had to be perfect and he had to be distracting and Will had to be happy. Since they’d been dating everything had felt different. And though he tried to distract himself from the realisation, the knowledge that it wasn’t necessarily a good different kept him awake at night. He’d lie in bed staring at the ceiling and the patterns of the shadows as they mixed with the light that bled in through the thin curtains. And then he had to face it: he was kind of disappointed.

He was a terrible person for thinking it, he knew. But he’d expected dating someone he’d been crushing on as strongly as he’d been crushing on Will would be all rainbows and happiness. He thought maybe he’d finally stop feeling so empty and angry. But nothing had changed. In some ways he felt worse, guilty that he wasn’t anywhere near as invested in the relationship as he thought he should be. He was scared of going on a date and Will realising it wasn’t going to work out after all. He was even more scared of going on a date and he himself realising it wasn’t going to work out after all.

Part of him wanted to put it down to the fact that there’d been at max two days between Will confessing he liked Nico, and Will getting hit by several papers and a whole lot of revision. But it wasn’t just that. Nico suddenly felt awkward around Will, and there was the added complication Will’s possible Godfather level mafia connections which had Nico more worried than he cared to admit. Will hadn’t directly said whether he’d given up working for his shady bosses and there were still times he disappeared at odd hours. (Though it was equally likely he was just off partying or studying or both and if there was one thing Nico thought he’d never understand about Will it would be the appeal of major muscles drinking games).

Nico wasn’t sure if the idea that Will was still working with dangerous, likely unforgiving people was more scary or whether the idea of him telling the same people to stuff it took the prize. He did know panic quickly overtook him when Will wasn’t with him, and that their first real argument had come about because Will hadn’t answered a text because his phone had been dead, and Nico had consequently begun planning his funeral and writing his obituary.

He didn’t want to lose someone else, he knew that. He just wished life with Will wasn’t so complicated. Maybe it was his fault. Maybe he’d just have to try harder.

He’d decided to go simple with dinner and a movie – something light hearted to cheer Will up – but now as he sat across Will in a fancy restaurant it felt all wrong and he was beginning to doubt his choice. Will – to his credit – hadn’t brought a textbook and was doing his best to seem like he was on the same planet as the rest of them. But it all still felt off, and Will had probably been on thousands of dates like this and Nico should have gone original so there’d be nothing to compare it to.

Deep breathes. Fill the silence.

“Um-“

“Do –“

Will laughed a little self-consciously.

“You go,” he said. “I was just going to ask if you wanted wine?”

“Uh I’m not actually –“

“Oh yeah. You don’t drink wine. Sorry.”

Will’s eyes were downcast and Nico felt temporarily guilty that he didn’t drink wine. Then he felt annoyed that he felt guilty. He bit his lip, fiddled with the edge of the napkin. The silence was somehow deafening, and it was drowning out all his thoughts and ability to make conversation. He could hear his heart, hammering in his chest.

When the waitress came to take their drinks order, Nico still hadn’t thought of anything to say. The pressure was now physical like a weight in his chest, crushing him. His throat felt paralysed so even if he could think of something to say, it was doubtful he’d be able to force himself to vocalise it.

Will had been reticent and distracted, but as the waitress moved off he looked up sharply, eyes narrowing. In the time it took Nico to twist in his seat, he had moved from wondering if it was Drew to deciding it was probably Will’s dangerous employers, come to kill him. Realising it was just Lou Ellen and Cecil, was both a relief and frustrating.

Cecil shoved Will to the side of the booth and sat down next to him with a bright and cheery grin and stole one of the breadsticks. Lou Ellen sat down next to Nico, more daintily than Cecil but with equal purpose. Nico found himself trapped and squashed next to her.

“What are you doing here?” Will asked in the manner of a polite enquiry that somehow suggested nonetheless that Cecil was about to be strangled.

“You said you were going out,” Cecil explained vaguely. “Have you already ordered?”

“I was letting you know I wasn’t going to be in, it wasn’t an invitation to –“

“Well then you need to work on your communication skills,” Cecil said. “Hey do you think I could get a chocolate milkshake?”

The waitress, coming back with Will’s fancy wine and Nico’s glass of lemonade, glanced at the two newcomers with some confusion.

“A water please,” Lou Ellen added. “With ice. And a slice of lemon.”

“This is not – no,” Will protested.

“You worry too much,” Cecil said blithely. “Aren’t you always saying you want to go on a double date?”

“No,” Will answered flatly. “And you and Lou Ellen aren’t dating.”

“Tomayto, tomato.” Cecil was dismissive.

“Hey,” he added. “Do you think it’s too late to change my order to one of these cocktail things?”

Will glanced skywards as though praying for patience, or possibly for some passing god to smite Cecil where he sat. Nico caught his eye and Will mimed shooting himself in the head. Despite the ridiculous of Cecil and the awful way the date was going, Nico found the corner of his mouth twitching in a slightly reluctant smile.

Having established they absolutely weren’t going anywhere Cecil and Lou Ellen began a spirited discussion about whether or not shapeshifters would replicate down to the DNA level. Will drank his wine like he was trying to drown himself. And Nico –

Nico just felt relieved. Cecil and Lou Ellen had broken the tension and taken the pressure away. This still was probably the worst date in the history of dates and he doubted Will would want anything to do with him now, but at least he could let them both do all the talking so the meal wasn’t conducted in stony, awkward silence.

He caught Will’s eye as Cecil started talking about robot spiders. Will rolled his eyes.

“I’m so sorry,” he mouthed.

Their meal came and Cecil and Lou Ellen were still talking. Will appeared to have given up, and was grudging allowing them to engage him as well, though at first his answers were mostly monosyllabic and largely impatient he now seemed a little more lively. Every time he glanced at Nico he’d pull a face, and Nico would have to fight back a giggle.

It was nice to see Will animated once more. He must have been dragging Will down without even realising and only now was Will beginning to break free of Nico’s persistent aura of doom and gloom and tragedy. Only now Cecil and Lou Ellen were with him.

What had Nico done?

He glanced up at Will, searching his face. He wasn’t exactly sure what he was looking for – signs that all Will’s happiness and cheer were being sucked away from being tied to Nico? What would that even look like? Will noticed him looking and gave him a slightly confused look. Nico felt he should answer but wasn’t entirely sure what he was going to say. I’m sorry I’ve been deliberately hurting you to avoid this exact situation (well this exact situation minus Cecil and Lou Ellen) because I was scared as soon as we went on a real date you’d realise we’d be better off as friends. It didn’t seem to quite cut it.

Will looked like he was about to say something, and Nico wasn’t sure he was ready for that either. Cecil, oblivious or maybe just acting that way, was reaching over for the salt, at the same time as Lou Ellen went for a new napkin. One of them missed and Nico’s lemonade tipped and fell. He’d barely taken a sip and judging by the sudden dampness down his front and on his jeans that had been a mistake.

“Cecil!” Will scolded.

“Why is it always me that gets the blame?” Cecil demanded.

Nico stood, not registering for Will’s response as he practically fled into the restrooms. He had angry tears in his eyes, but he was pretty sure they didn’t have anything to do with the lemonade. He scrubbed the tears away, furious at himself for giving in to them, and dabbed at his top with a paper towel.

He heard the door open and shut but he didn’t look up. He didn’t want Will to see how red his eyes were.

“You okay?”

He nodded tightly, pressing his lips together so he wasn’t tempted to say anything else. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Will hauling himself up onto the counter and he handed Nico another towel.

“I’m sorry about them,” Will said quietly.

Nico shrugged. He didn’t know if Will picked up on the movement because he still refused to look anywhere but at his top. He heard Will take a breath, measured and deliberate. He was tempted to look – was that a pre-breakup speech breath? Instead he kept his eyes down.

“I’ll try and get rid of them,” was all Will said. The door closed.

“Coward,” Nico told his reflection.

When he got back to the table, Lou Ellen and Cecil were nowhere to be seen.

“I think they just wanted to avoid paying for their food,” Will commented.

Nico nodded again, aware he was getting repetitive.

“Are you sure you’re okay?”

“Fine.”

“You don’t look okay?”

“I’m fine Will, can you drop it?”

Nico hadn’t meant to snap. He made the mistake of looking up and seeing the hurt flash through Will’s eyes. There was a moment of silence and Nico thought he could count every heartbeat as it hammered into his rib cage. His nails were making crescents in his palm, and they’d probably leave a mark.

“We’re not working,” Will said. He was calm, quiet, matter of fact. It made Nico feel sick to hear him say it but he couldn’t help but think Will was right.

“No,” he said, giving in. “We’re not.”

Saying the words was horrible. He could barely manage them in much more than a whisper.  

“I think it’s probably my fault,” Will said to the table.

“Why would you even think that?” Nico demanded. He was going on the offensive and he heard the bite in his tone, the accusation and the aggression. He dug his nails deeper into his palms and clenched his jaw shut to try and avoid any further outbursts. He wanted himself to stop before he said something stupid, something he would regret.

“Because I’ve been using studying as a means to distract myself from the fact I’m suddenly in a relationship I actually care about and have no clue what to do?”

Nico froze. It felt very literal, the boiling anger suddenly turning to ice in his veins.

“You what?”

 “I’ve been –“

“No I heard,” Nico said. “I mean it’s just that’s what _I’ve_ been doing. I’ve been trying to distract you because I kind of had no idea what to do with the fact you actually liked me.”

“Pretty much the only time things have felt kind of normal is when Cecil and Lou Ellen were here,” Will admitted. “The pressure was suddenly gone and I - I’ve just realised that was probably their plan and you have to swear not to tell them they were successful in getting us to talk because I will never hear the end of it.”

“We could always tell them they weren’t,” Nico suggested.

“Fake a break up?” Will asked, beginning to laugh.

“Why not?” Nico asked. “We faked dating when we weren’t. We could fake not-dating when we are. You know, I mean if we still are?”

Will looked up at him then, properly looked at him.

“I like you a lot Nico,” he said.

Nico felt a bit warm and fuzzy and tried to pretend like he didn’t. He didn’t care that Will Solace cared about him. He didn’t. Not at all. He wasn’t melting inside in the slightest.

“Not that you should let that go to your head,” Will added. “The last person I dated was Drew so it’s not exactly hard to one up that.”

Nico rolled his eyes.

“I think I’m going off you,” Nico said. Will’s smile flickered on and then he went all serious again.

“I like you a lot,” he said again. “I want to try and figure this out.”

“Cool,” Nico said affecting disinterest because he’d reached his limit of speaking sincerely and wasn’t quite sure what to do with so much of it coming from Will. “You know if you want.”  

“I hate you so much,” Will said, but he was smiling.

Nico grinned and stuck his tongue out. Will retaliated by stealing one of his tomatoes. Nico batted his hand away, the beginnings of laughter in his throat. He thought they weren’t quite fixed yet, but it was a start.


	15. Chapter Fourteen - How Can I Even Try to Explain

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nico is still struggling slightly in his new relationship and he receives a phone call that complicates things.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title from I Wouldn't Normally Do This Kind of Thing - Pet Shop Boys
> 
> *Sorry for the delay - it was my birthday and things got all out of sync. I know I said this last time but we really should be back on schedule now! Thanks for all your patience <3*

 

Nico had been living with Will for 9 weeks and 2 days. That meant there were 5 days left until the ten-week mark. He knew he had five days until the ten-week mark because Jason called him one afternoon when he was trying to decide whether or not to just go back to sleep, screw the world in general and his job in particular. As such Nico already really wasn’t in the mood for Jason's teasing, even less in the mood for his teasing about the ten-week rule.

According to Jason and Percy, ten weeks was Nico's limit for dealing with new people. According to them Nico's track record for the ten-week benchmark wasn't great: he'd ditched three housemates, and written off four more as literally only there to pay the rent so Nico wasn’t out on the streets (and only tolerable because they worked days and he didn't so the only times they were the proverbial ships in the night). Nico wasn't exactly sure where this ten-week stuff was coming from: he certainly didn't do it consciously. In fact, most of the time he didn't even keep track of how long he'd known people for.  That did mean he couldn't even really contradict Jason with any certainty.

It didn't stop him insisting that he wasn't, actually, so much of an introverted and socially inept recluse that he reached his limit with people at ten weeks. Him insisting that he wasn't, actually, so much of an introverted and socially inept recluse that he reached his limit with people at ten weeks, didn't stop Jason and Percy. Of course it didn’t. And so the cycle went on and every new person Nico met seemed to prove the two of them right.  

Jason and Percy hadn’t really been subject to any kind of ten-week probation period since he’d known them for as long as he could remember, to the point where he now felt he probably couldn't get rid of them. Hell, he hadn’t even been able to cut Percy out of his life successfully after Bian- after the incident and if that couldn’t do it he was doomed to have to put up with the forever. Three people had made it past ten weeks: Hazel (she _was_ his sister), Leo (by the skin of his teeth) and Reyna (he still wasn’t sure how that had happened).

Now Will was approaching ten weeks. And that seemed to concern Jason.

Jason who apparently was psychic and could pick up on the fact that he was struggling in his relationship over several hundred miles and absolute radio silence from Nico. He _wasn't_ psychic enough to pick up on the fact Nico didn't want to talk about it.

"Mm," he mumbled on autopilot, realising that Jason had stopped talking.

Jason began talking again and Nico tuned him out again and focused on the washing up. He didn't know what Will was eating - presumably it was something because he hadn't fainted from exhaustion yet - but either he was suddenly a washing up ninja and was cleaning up his stuff the second he'd finished with it, or he was trying out a plate-less lifestyle. Either way Nico was more concerned about him than he liked to admit.

Because Will could look after himself, and it really wasn’t any of Nico’s business what or when Will ate. Except Will apparently couldn’t, and now Nico was invested in Will’s well-being and his smiles it kind of was.

Doing the washing up by himself was seriously boring, made worse by having to listen to Jason enough to recognise silence and when to interject a noncommittal sound. He wondered when Will would be getting home; he'd be done with his final exam any moment. And then -

He wasn't sure. They'd settled into a kind of routine and some of the hesitancy and awkwardness had faded but Will had still been preoccupied and always had one foot in medicine land. It made serious conversations about the two of them harder than they already would have been and they'd both kind of unanimously without any discussion on the point decided to hold off until Will had finished. It had been a temporary fix, but the band aid was about to be ripped off and he'd have to face Will. That was kind of terrifying.

On the other hand, he refused to let Will be a victim of ten weeks - he'd never hear the end of it - so there was that. One way or another they’d just have to fight through.

He heard the door and turned, smiling without meaning to.

"Okay Jason," he said interrupting whatever he had been saying. "I've got to go but I'll call you back soon."

That was probably going to prove itself to be a lie, so he made a mental note to listen to Jason next time Jason called to check up on him. 

"You know I never did meet Jason," Will said contemplatively as he wandered over to the fridge.

"You'd like him," Nico said drying bubbles off his hands and resisting the urge to throw some at Will because that would be childish and he was in a mature sort of stable relationship now. 

Will gave him a questioning look.

"He's the mom friend too."

Will shook his head and scowled but his eyes were gleaming too much for Nico to take it seriously.

"So?" Nico prompted when Will didn't say anything else.

"So?"

"The exam!"

"Oh." Will was so quiet Nico wondered if perhaps he shouldn't have asked. He watched as Will passed a coke can from hand to hand. Then just when Nico was wondering how to phrase _well you can always retake right?_ without sounding completely heartless, Will broke into a grin.

"Oh it was easy. I killed it."

"Of course you did," Nico said with a roll of his eyes. "That was obvious."

Will looked at him almost expressionless and Nico's heart skipped a beat. Will reached forward and Nico wondered for a moment what on earth he was doing but he just caught up a handful of bubbles and flicked them at Nico.

"Well either way,"  he said, as he dodged quickly out of Nico's way and out of the kitchen entirely as Nico aimed a revenge shot. "I'm going to celebrate my achievement by getting incredibly drunk."

"So that will be like what two glasses in?"

Will looked down his nose at Nico from across the hall which wasn't exactly hard given the height difference and some days Nico kind of liked that Will was so tall and others he wondered if he could just lop a few inches off Will's legs so Will would have to stop being so smug.

"I was going to invite you to join me," Will said. "But now maybe I shan't."

"Drinking alone is sad," Nico pointed out.

"Lucky I have you then," Will answered with a sigh and a slight smirk. "Now stop distracting me. I want to go burn my revision notes so I am free of their evil influence."

Nico let him go. Times a serious conversation had been avoided: 1. He thought that made the score him: 1, the ten-week-rule: 0.

Nico had thought Will was joking about the ritualistic sacrifice of his notes but he came out of his room armed with what looked like half a tree of paper.

"Please say you aren't actually going to burn that," Nico said with mild alarm. "Pretty sure Octavian isn't home and if you're going to set this place on fire I'd like to at least hear his reaction."

"It's loud," Will said with some authority as he dumped the entire lot in the recycling.

"It's always loud," Will said by way of explanation. "Doesn't matter what it is. Also one of my previous housemates may have started a small domestic fire. I don't know what Octavian was so upset about - we managed to put it out almost right away."

"I knew there was a reason I didn't quite trust you in the kitchen," Nico said.

"Maybe," Will said. "Or maybe it's just a ploy to get you to do all the cooking."

"Well then it's failing because when was the last time I cooked?"

"You ordered me that food the other week," Will pointed out with a smile that was just a bit too smug. "Turns out you have a heart after all Di Angelo."

Nico shook his head.

"Just thought you dying of malnutrition would look suspicious you supposedly being somewhat of a medical professional and all."

Will didn't respond just grinned and managed to look even more smug than he had a moment before.

"Sure Neeks."

Nico threw a tea towel at him.

Will, for all his instance that he was going out to party or was going to stay in and get blind drunk, ended up lying on the sofa watching The Lion King.

"I've not seen this one," Nico commented, shoving Will's legs aside so he could sit.

Will sat up to stare at him and then sank down again shaking his head in obvious disbelief.

"I sometimes wonder what I see in you," he commented.

Nico folded his arms over his chest which suddenly constricted as Will's comment hit somewhere a little too close to home.

"It's my winning personality obviously," he said. His voice must have been a little tight because Will sat up properly.

"There's that," he agreed a little more carefully than his usual light tone. "And of course you're not all that bad looking. I'm clearly an eleven, but you're maybe a nine. Ten. Ten and a half. But no more than that because that would mess up this hot vs smart dynamic thing we've got going on."

Nico smiled despite himself.

"You're training to be a doctor Will, you can't convince me you're not smart."

"Okay, but like don't tell anyone. I'm trying very hard to cultivate an image of being -"

"- blonde?"

"Blonde."

Nico shook his head.

"Well you're not doing a very good job," he commented.

"Maybe," Will said. "Or maybe you were just smart enough to see through it."

Sometimes Nico really didn't get Will. And sometimes he didn't know if that scared him or not.

Will fell asleep halfway through the film. One minute he'd been humming along to the songs, the next he was slumped in the cushions. His legs had at some point ended up over Nico's lap and now Nico was trapped.

He clawed across the carpet for his phone, which typically was just out of reach, and his attempts to bring it closer only had in inching further away. In the end he gave up and watched the end of the movie until it cycled back round to the title screen which he watched over and over and over -

He didn't know he'd been asleep until Will sat up and accidentally kicked him awake.

"What is that?" Will asked blearily. "Sorry," he added when he saw Nico rubbing his ribs.

"Phone," Nico muttered, pushing Will's legs aside and sliding down onto the floor. He squinted against the glow of the screen about to slide his thumb across to answer the call when it finally registered who was calling. He froze.

"Nico?" Will asked from the sofa.

"Nothing," Nico said, too quickly, far too guilty. "It's nothing."

Will stared at him for half a second, and there were equal chances Will was still half asleep and not processing properly, or Will was seeing straight through Nico's lies.

"Okay," Will said and slumped back down again.

"You're not going to question that?" Nico asked surprise and sleepiness, plus the horror and confusion at the call that was still rattling his phone, making him vocalise things he'd never usually say.

"I'm the last person who is going to lecture you about keeping secrets," Will said with a shrug. "Don't answer it. Or do. I don't mind. I do fancy a cheeseburger though. Could you eat? I could eat."

Nico blinked but didn't object to Will's meandering and non-too-subtle attempts at changing the subject. He was just grateful for the headspace.

"I could eat," he said.

They ended up, whether coincidentally or deliberately Nico didn't think he'd ever know, in the restaurant they'd gone to on their first pretend date, the first time Will had been suffering with exam stress. The thought kind of made Nico's head spin.

"So you're ordering one of those parrot cocktails right?" Will asked in apparent seriousness, as he studied the menu. He didn't even have the good grace to look up so he could see the glare Nico sent his way, the traitor.

He didn't order the parrot because this now, not counting the plethora of other times they'd been alone (or alone plus Lou Ellen and Cecil which didn't really count) in a restaurant, could kind of be construed as their first date. He felt a little more relaxed than last time, even given the threat of The Conversation that was always looming on the horizon. Perhaps it was because now he had so much more to be stressed about that suddenly opening up to his boyfriend seemed like a piece of cake.

And with that in mind he was beginning to think maybe the parrot cocktail might have been a good idea. It might have been able to take away the little voice that hadn’t stopped screaming in the back of his mind since he’d nearly taken the call.

"You alright?" Will asked. "Only I've been talking and it's not like I expect you to hang onto my every word, but I expect you to hang onto my every word, like come on."

Nico sighed.

"Give it up Solace," he said. "I saw through your dumb blonde act remember. You said I was smart."

"Doesn't mean I don't think everyone should hang onto my every word," Will said, but he was grinning. Then he frowned and shrugged.

"You know sometimes I forget I don't have to pretend with you. It's kind of weird. And now I'm opening up and saying real things. That's weird too. Feel free to stop me at any point."

"I don't know," Nico said. "Are you going to keep indirectly complimenting me? Because I'm not going to stop that."

Will stuck his tongue out.

"You're the worst and I hate you," he said without any feeling at all. "I'm going to have the meatballs. They're like little min burgers."

"I don't know whether you're really right, or really wrong," Nico answered.

Will just smirked back and Nico was reminded how much he liked Will's smiles. Even his smirks. Even though they kind of also made Nico want to throw things at him. Even then.

Without any ceremony Will's mini-burgers/meatballs came along with Nico's ravoli, taking them both by surprise. Conversation had been surprisingly easy, flowing naturally in what was a masterful feat of denial of anything else that might be going on. The only thing that marred the mood slightly was Will ignoring his phone. Nico didn't mean to get so jumpy about the number of texts Will got, but every time Will's phone vibrated his eyes shot to it and his heart jumped.

"Cecil and Lou Ellen,” Will said eventually, obviously catching one of the many slightly suspicious looks Nico had been trying (and apparently failing) not to send towards the phone. They want to talk about the exam and I don’t so I'm busy ignoring that group chat." He paused. "Not my shady boss I promise."

Nico sighed because here it was. The Conversation.

"Good," he said mildly and wondered if that would be enough to derail it before it began.

"Good?" Will asked equally mildly but Nico wondered if there was a threat behind it. He felt annoyed and small all at once, split between fight and flight wanting to yell back and curl up into a ball and disappear. Because how dare Will put himself in danger? Didn't he know how much he was worth? What he meant to people? What he meant to _him_?

But a fight wasn't what he wanted, and he swallowed back the anger. He couldn't let rage control him, couldn't let it ruin whatever it was he had with Will.

"Good," Nico said by way of clarification. He wondered if Will would drop it and for a second he thought he wouldn't. Will's eyes were narrowed and he was holding his fork too tightly, food long forgotten. But then Will sighed and shrugged and apparently he didn't want to fight either because he just nodded.

"Okay," he said and changed the subject.

Conversation avoided.

Except Nico didn't exactly feel good about that fact. His chest now felt tighter than it had before. But that didn't make any sense because they'd dodged that fight and surely that was the right thing? Couples shouldn't fight, especially not when they were as new as him and Will. Because if they were going to fight this early on maybe they weren't right for each other. And that was frightening because if Will wasn't right for him would anyone be right for him?

He picked moodily at his food and, in a petty move he hated himself for, didn't listen to Will as he continued along the changed subject lines to talk about his classes for the next semester. Nico felt guilty seconds later and tried to tune back in, but his ears didn't seem to be working properly and all he could hear in his head was white noise. He glanced down at his phone to try and distract himself, but more importantly Will, from the fact his eyes were growing hot. He'd rarely cried since his sister had died. Tears after that had seemed pointless, a betrayal somehow because nothing could be worse than that. He wasn't sure why they were coming now, and he blinked them back in irritation.

They _hadn't_ fought. That was a _victory_.

It just didn't feel like one.

He had a text; he could focus on that.

He didn't realise he was frowning until Will said his name, slightly sharply and Nico realised Will had probably called his name several times already

"It's from Hazel," he said in what probably wasn't a very good explanation.

"Is she alright?" Will asked. He sounded concerned and Nico hadn't realised he looked that bad. He _felt_ that bad, but aside from the tears he thought he'd been hiding it reasonably well.

"She's fine -" Nico shook his head trying to collect his thoughts.

"It's my father," he said. "Hazel said he's coming to visit. That must be why he tried to call earlier."

Will looked like he wasn't quite sure how he was supposed to take that news.

"Is that a bad thing?"

Nico's hands were shaking. He tried to steady them but he couldn't manage it. Will frowned, in concern rather than irritation this time, and took Nico's hands in his own. That gave Nico a second of clarity, an anchor and he took a deep breath and tried to act like that wasn't difficult and he didn't feel like he'd just been thrown overboard.

"It's not bad?" he said but even to his own ears it sounded like a question. "It's just - unexpected. My dad he never visits, he doesn't, not since - oh god."

"It'll be okay," Will said, though he didn't look certain, didn't look like he quite understood. Nico didn't blame him. He barely understood himself. He wanted to believe Will. And his father wasn't the worst human on the planet. It wasn't like he'd ever hit Nico or anything it was just -

"Do you want to go home?" Will asked.

Nico thought about that, but he didn't really know what he wanted. Except Will. And for things to be okay between them, really okay without all the complications of Will's secret life and the fact he felt like he still didn't quite understand his boyfriend. Without the fear and the sense of disappointment he felt guilty about.

"No," he said eventually. "Let's stay for desert at least."

"Whatever you want," Will said, utterly sincere and for a moment Nico thought maybe everything really would be okay. It was just a moment, but it was a nice moment, and he tried to hold onto to it.

 

 


	16. Chapter Fifteen - Words Mean So Little?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nico and Will play a version of mythomagic to distract him from his impending Dad.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title from Rent - Pet Shop Boys

Nico had been living with Will for almost ten weeks and he’d never been more grateful to have a roommate. They’d come home from the restaurant, and Nico had sat down on the sofa at an almost complete loss. Will vanished into his own room and Nico guessed he was being given space but, unlike every other time he’d ever wanted space and not been given it, he just wanted someone to sit with him and distract him. Someone in particular. He wanted Will.

News of his father’s impending visit travelled quickly through Nico’s small circle. Jason had sent what were essentially his condolences and promised to visit if Nico wanted him to. Hazel had promised the same. Leo had offered Nico a place in the car road tripping with him and Calypso, but Nico thought he’d actually prefer dealing with his father than being the third wheel on Leo and Calypso’s tour of the country. Percy was perhaps the most dramatic simply sending a row of exclamation marks followed by a skull.

Part of Nico thought they were all being a bit dramatic. Another part of him had to acknowledge that his legs felt like jelly.

He had only seen his father once since Bianca, when Nico had found out about Hazel. That went almost immediately into the awkward conversation hall of fame, and Nico would do anything to avoid another situation like that. He’d been furious mostly, that his father thought he could replace Bianca and his mother with some new family. The conversation (which was more of a shouting match on Nico's side) had been shortly after Bianca’s death which in turn had happened shortly after his mother’s.  And now, his father came again as unwelcome as the spectre at the feast. Nico wanted to focus on Will and his very first relationship, not an awkward reunion.

He was not in the mood to play happy families when, as far as he was concerned his family consisted of three people and three people exactly: Hazel, and Percy and Jason. Not only that, but his father had never visited without a purpose before. And Nico couldn’t remember a time when going to visit his father was synonymous with good news. He just couldn’t see what else the world could throw at him. Whatever it was he had to face it by himself. No one could help, not Hazel, nor Jason nor Percy. They could text all the supportive messages they wanted but it was still him that had to face his father. The feeling of being separate, being different and being alone used to be his permanent state. The fact it was unexpected now was a surprise. He hadn’t quite realised exactly what calling Will’s apartment home had done to him.

It had made him soft was what it had done. Because as usual, when the darkness fell and bad things happened, he was left to face it alone.

“Is it an ice cream mood or an alcohol one?”

He jumped, turned, then felt guilty that he’d maybe, sort of been so busy wallowing in self pity he’d forgotten Will was in the apartment. His boyfriend was standing near he sofa, with an armful of blankets, with a flashlight and several candles on top. He had an expression Nico couldn't decode exactly but it looked sort of soft. Caring. Concerned.

“I don’t really get the deal with your dad,” Will said. “But when stuff happened in my family Kayla and I used to make forts. It didn’t make anything go away but it sort of shut it out for a bit?”

“A fort?” Nico said. Will stared at him as though trying to work out how serious Nico was. 

“What was your childhood?” Will demanded eventually. “Come on, help me move that chair.”

Under strict guidance from a suddenly very bossy Will, Nico managed to build his first blanket fort. Will had dismantled the sofa and was sitting on one of the large cushions, cradling a bowl of ice cream. They’d turned off the main lights and the only things lighting the room were the electric candles. The flickering glow made Will’s eyes sparkle and gleam.

There was barely any space inside the blanket tent. His knees were touching Will’s. Nico had a long history of hating enclosed spaces, but this was nice. Cosy.

“This isn’t horrible,” Nico admitted.

“I occasionally know what I’m doing,” Will agreed serenely. “So you want to talk about it?”

Nico thought about that, taking a slightly too large spoonful of ice cream to buy time. The fact he had to think about it at all was probably progress since he usually shut down this kind of conversation before it even had a chance to start. But even with Will who was probably the most patient, loveliest, kindest person in the whole entire world, (or at least the part of the world Nico was acquainted with) it was still hard to open his mouth and just talk.

“I never knew my dad,” Will said suddenly into the silence. His eyes were far away and contemplative. “My mom – well you know my mom –“

“No,” Nico said truthfully.

Will gave him an odd look.

“Funny,” he said and moved on before Nico had a chance to admit he really didn’t know who Will’s mother was other than that she was probably rich and or reasonably famous for her son to be the same.

“You know Kayla’s actually my foster sister -?”

“You two look so alike. You know other than the hair.”

Will laughed.

“Yeah a lot of people say that. So anyway for a long time before Kayla it was just me and my mom. And I should have been - should  _be_  content with that right? I mean most of the time I don’t miss my dad, whoever he was, or care really that he ditched me and my mom. But sometimes I wonder who he is. What life would have been like if he stayed.”

“My dad wasn’t around much. He probably cared about my mom but he just wasn’t exactly the cuddly type – shut up Will!”

“I didn’t say anything,” Will protested but his smirk had grown wider.

 “But," Will said proving he'd been thinking it. "You can see the family resemblance. You act like you’re not all cuddly, when really you are. And I’m apparently not great at commitment.”

“You shoot yourself down a lot,” Nico commented. “And I’m not cuddly!”

“We’ll just have to agree to disagree on that,” Will said with a slight smile.

Nico sighed.

“I’ve said it before, but you’re the worst.”

“That’s mean,” Will said. “I even dug out your mythomagic cards for us to play to help you further regress to childhood.”

“I don’t like them anymore,” Nico said with a sniff. “I have matured and risen about such childish pursuits.”

“I found you Apollo in this old shop near work.”

“But then again isn’t it common wisdom that even the most advanced individuals should have a hobby and thus – “

“Take the card and shut up Nico,” Will said laughing.

“Here’s the deal though -” Will said as Nico tried to figure out exactly where to place the card.

“Why do those words fill me with such dread?” Nico asked, still thumbing through his deck.

“Sop interrupting,” Will told him, attempting imperious, but not really managing it because he was trying not to laugh.

“Every time one of us loses points,”

“It’s called –“

“Don’t care. Every time one of us loses points, the other gets to ask a question.”

Nico thought about that.

“Yeah okay.”

“Really?” Will asked. “I mean  _yay._  It’s just I didn’t expect you to agree so quickly.”

“Yeah,” Nico said. “I mean normally maybe. But I’m much better at this than you. And I have a lot of questions.”

Will didn’t look particularly concerned which might have been worrying if Nico thought Will was the sort of person to have secret mythomagic lessons because Nico enjoyed –

Oh god, Will was  _exactly_  the kind of person who would have mythomagic lessons just because it was something Nico enjoyed.

“It’s like that episode of friends,” Will said thoughtfully. “You know the poker one. Which thinking about it was probably called The One with The Poker…”

“Don’t watch Friends.”

Will sighed.

“Di Angelo come on! Everyone has seen Friends. At least one episode.”

Nico shrugged.

“Just sort out your deck Solace.”

“Fine,” Will said. “But you know we’re really going to have to work on your pop culture. It’s like you grew up in the 1940s or something. Wait is that it? Have I cracked it? Are you secretly Captain America.”

“Right cos you could see me in tights wandering around New York with a shield. If anyone was going to be Captain America it would be Jason.”

“So you know who Captain America is? But not -?”

“Of course I know who Captain America is Will, I’m not some heathen.”

Will was shaking his head in almost complete disbelief.

“Seriously what did you do as a kid? How do you know Captain America but you’ve never seen the Lion King?”

“You’re not allowed to ask questions yet,” Nico pointed out. “You haven’t taken any of my points.”

Will grinned, quick and bright.

“Alright, alright,” he said. “Let’s go then. That can be my first question.”

To Nico’s surprise, Will did get the first hit in. He smirked over the top of his cards as he stared Nico down.

“So Neeks what’s the deal with your childhood?”

Nico sighed but he guessed Will had won that round.

“I really don’t think it was that unsua-“

“You’ve never seen the Lion King!” Will interrupted, voice an octave higher than usual in outrage. 

“You might want to say that again, I think only bats heard you.”

“Don’t deflect.”

Nico sighed and fiddled with the cards in his hand. Really of all the questions Will could have asked, this really wasn’t the worst.

“When I was younger things were good. I lived with my mom and my sister.”

“Hazel?”

“No – no she came later. Bianca. My other sister. She um – died. My mom’s dead too.”

His voice was shaky, and his lip was trembling. He scrunched up his fists irritably, wishing the blanket fort wasn’t so small and Will wasn’t so close, and so understanding and sincere.

“If you don’t want to talk about it –“

“No,” Nico said, a little more forcefully, a little more stubbornly than he’d intended. “No it’s fine.”

“So it was us three. My dad didn’t live with us, but he’d visit sometimes. I think he preferred Bianca to me. I don’t think he really got me.”

Will’s gave a sympathetic smile but otherwise didn’t say anything. The room was too quiet, just his voice and Will’s quiet breathing. He could have heard a pin drop. It made his skin itch.

“I guess maybe we were quite sheltered? My mom wasn’t really a big fan of sugary foods or tv. I used to read a lot. Classic mythology. Weird choice for a kid I guess.”

“I don’t know, it’s given you an edge in this game.”

“Not that you’d know it,” Nico said. “I just took the first question.”

“You want to stop?”

“No Solace I have about a thousand questions I want you to answer. We’re not stopping.”

Now properly motivated to utterly destroy his boyfriend, (slowly so he could get in as many questions as possible), he got the next attack perfectly executed to cut down on Will’s points.

“Favourite song?” he said quickly.

Will looked momentarily confused.

“Really?” he asked.

“I’m starting off slow,” Nico explained. “I’ve got a whole series of questions lined up.”

Will still looked slightly suspicious as though he expected Nico was trapping him but he appeared to give it some thought anyway.

“I don’t have one,” he said eventually.

“Everyone has a favourite song!” Nico protested. “This was supposed to be a warm up question.”

“Oh yeah and what’s your favourite song?” Will demanded.

“Blitzkrieg Bop,” Nico said instantly. It wasn’t, not necessarily, but he’d just realised what a hard question it actually was but didn’t want to give Will the satisfaction of knowing that.

Will sighed but shrugged.

“Mr Blue Sky maybe? Heroes? Wake Me Up…? Uh-“

“You’re terrible at this,” Nico said.

Will laughed a little defensively.

“There’s so much good music out there. It’s difficult to choose.”

“Lame,” Nico told him. “I feel like you didn’t really answer that so I get two questions next time.”

“No- that’s -no!”

Nico just laughed.

“This was such a great idea,” he told Will.

His next questions came quickly. Will told him, with more certainty this time, that if he had to chose one of his friends to get trapped on a desert island with he’d choose Cecil because a) he thought Cecil was the most handy of his friends and so would be good in a pinch at improvising shelter and ways to get food. More importantly was b) which was that Cecil was so annoying he’d be incredibly motivated to get off the island. Nico’s follow up question, which he insisted he was owed and Will gave in to with less bad grace than he could have done, was about his friends in general and why he put up with them.

“Cecil and Lou Ellen aren’t so bad,” Will said. He’d said something like that before, Nico remembered. It seemed like a bit of a waste of a (follow up) question.

“I think the others would prefer it if I didn’t hang around with Lou Ellen and Cecil so much,” Will said suddenly and thoughtfully. “Even if I didn’t love them both, I don’t think I’d ditch them. Small rebellions.”

He glanced up, must have accurately read Nico’s expression because he gave a small, almost rueful smile before continuing.

“I guess you could say I kind of got pushed into Drew and her crowd.  And then it was just kind of easier to stay and not fight back.”

“And pretend to be –?” Nico said, realisation dawning.

“Blonde?” Will asked, a little teasingly.

“Blonde,” echoed, slightly ruefully.

“Who said I’m not though? The partying was fun, if kind of exhausting. It was hell when I had essays. I probably didn’t get much sleep.”

The past tense stood out and made Nico realise that actually Will didn’t go out as much anymore. He examined that thought a little further, wondering if he should feel guilty about keeping Will in the apartment, if it really was him that was keeping Will in the apartment. There was just an absence of that emotion. Did that make him a bad person? He decided he neither knew nor cared at this particular point in time.

“Anyway, keeping on Drew’s good side is important. That was part of the reason the whole fake dating thing came about.”

“What’s she going to do?” Nico asked with more scorn and jealously than he’d meant. “Stab you with her lipstick? Wait, what do you mean it’s why the fake dating thing came about?”

Will shrugged and tried not to laugh, but didn’t quite manage it. It made his eyes go all sparkly again and Nico felt a little melty. Stupid Will and his stupid eyes.

 “You’ve definitely run out of questions,” Will told him.

“That’s not fair at all,” Nico protested.

“I don’t make the rules,” Will said in a sing-song voice calculated perfectly to be annoying.

“Actually, you kind of did,” Nico pointed out, sullen.

Will just laughed.

 And then proceeded to attack Nico and knock him back three times in a row. Nico swore his nightmare of a boyfriend was doing it deliberately and he hated that he thought Will’s smirk was kind of really attractive. The only good think was that Will was obviously being a little more cautious with his questions, apparently wary of forcing him to open up anymore than he wanted to. It frustrated him that Will saw him as weak, that’d he’d been weak in front of Will and why couldn’t he just  _tell_  his boyfriend stuff. But he was relieved too.

So, in quick succession he gave up his favourite food as lasagne (which Will called boring and stereotypical), his dream job as married to someone rich (which Will complained lacked imagination and when exactly did Nico plan on dumping him for said rich person), and a country he’d like to visit as Transylvania (at which point Will told him to take the game seriously).

When he finally managed to take a chunk out of Will’s life he cried out in triumphant glee, and did his best impression of a not-at-all graceful winner.

“You know what I want to ask,” Nico said.

Will suddenly looked a little uncomfortable. They’d been playing in the same position as they’d been sitting: close together and knees touching. Now Will drew his knees up to his chest, putting his cards face down to hug himself. It was a defensive posture, but one that Nico thought came from sadness or guilt.

“It was a really dumb idea,” Will said quietly. “I went out with Drew for a while. She asked and I sort of felt like I couldn’t say no. I think she realised my heart wasn’t really in it, because she suggested we took a break.

When I realised she wanted to restart things and I didn’t know how to get out of it, other than dating someone else. But everyone else was in her circle or Cecil or Lou Ellen which would just be too strange. You made sense. Cecil already thought I’d slept with you and none of the others had met you or would care enough to want to.”

“And Drew backed down after that?” Nico asked, equally quietly.

“She’s self-absorbed but she’s not really a monster. She said she was happy for me.”

“Do you think she is?”

Will shrugged. He was struggling to meet Nico’s eyes.

“Are you happy for you?”

Nico didn’t know what made him ask because he didn’t think he wanted to know the answer. Maybe he was just craving some kind of validation, wanted Will to say of course he was happy, he’d never been happier and all the doubts that were crowding Nico’s mind and the fact Nico didn't feel like sunshine incarnate all the time were silly and baseless. He wanted Will to say they really could walk into the sunset and live in a world of rainbows and candy hearts.

“I don’t know.”

Nico drew back and Will must have felt that because he looked up sharply.

“No,” he said quickly. “That’s not. I didn’t mean it to come out like that. I just meant it’s all really complicated. You were just supposed to be my roommate, I wasn’t supposed to like you. But you were cute and funny and I just –“

He ran his hands through his hair.

“I’m messing this up,” he said. “It’s just -" he broke off and sighed. 

"- complicated," he finished warily. "And I didn’t mean to drag you into it all.”

“Will –“ Nico began but his voice tailed off. He wasn’t really sure what he wanted to say. His mind just felt blank and fuzzy.

“Sorry,” Will said quietly. “We were supposed to be having a good time and distracting you from your demonic and/or boringly average underachieving Dad.”

“I asked,” Nico said.

The distance between them was back, a gulf. He felt Will retreating again. The last time he’d felt it had been at Percy’s engagement party. A part of him that wasn’t distracted by the maelstrom of emotions that were fighting for space and acknowledgement wondered if this is what Jason had to go through every time Nico pulled away. It was frustrating, the feeling of a mirror suddenly being held up and having to confront his reflection.

“Ghostbuster would be cool,” he said, surprising himself and Will, who looked up and finally met his eyes.

“Huh?”

“You asked what my ideal job would be. I like history so it would b really cool to explore old places. I like mythology and the supernatural so trying to find proof of another world would be interesting.”

He shrugged.

“You’d like my nana’s house,” Will said. “She always swore it was haunted. We should go one day.”

The idea of Will introducing Nico to his grandmother was simultaneously so sappy sweet and unexpected that the hurricane of emotions was shocked into submission. The idea that the relationship could last long enough for Will to want to start introducing him to relatives was scary but at least it meant Will thought they’d survive. Nico just wished he could have Will’s confidence.

Will was right: everything was complicated.

 “You know you still have points to take and I still have questions to ask so –“

Nico glanced at Will, surprised. Will still had his knees drawn up to his chest and he seemed fragile but the distance didn’t seem to be there. He gave Nico a hopeful smile and a kind of half shrug.

“Alright,” Nico said.

 


	17. Chapter Sixteen - Do You Play to Win or Are You Just a Bad Loser?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nico meets with his father

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter Title from Domino Dancing by The Pet Shop Boys

Nico had been living with Will for long enough to slowly have developed a grudging tolerance for his friends. Or at least some of his friends. No matter what Will said he didn’t think he’d ever be able to bring himself to warm to Drew. Part of it was jealously, part of it genuine distrust and wariness he reserved for pretty much everyone he wasn’t well acquainted with. It was a survival technique. But then there was also the fact he was probably just shoving all his frustration at Will towards her.

Lou Ellen and Cecil, however, were different. Loud and often obnoxious for a start, and somehow carefree in a way Will sometimes achieved and sometimes faked, and Nico could never hope to understand. But they cared for Will, that was obvious enough, so he accepted them as a kind of necessary annoyance. It didn’t mean he didn’t jump when Lou Ellen caught his arm in the middle of a street. He frowned at her, more confused and surprised than actually angry for once, and she let go with a look of apology.

“You look stressed,” she commented.

Nico stared at her blankly for a second. Lou Ellen frowned slightly.

“Coffee?” she asked. “Or maybe green tea or something in your case since coffee might set your heart to explode -?”

Nico blinked.

“Or not?”

Nico had arrived in town far too early to meet his father. He’d been unable to spend another minute in the house in the grips of the agony of a wait, when each second felt like he’d lived a decade. He had also been terrified of being late, and that had overwritten any contrariness he might have felt, any insistence that he didn’t care what his father thought of him and his time keeping skills. Whenever he thought of his father he felt ten years old again, and desperate to please.

“Yes,” he said abruptly, and his own words surprised him. But he had time to kill and though he thought he might feel too jittery to sit, he also couldn’t keep walking up and down if only because it felt like his legs were locking up.  He followed Lou Ellen distractedly into a café where he was assaulted with the smell of coffee grounds. It was a heavy scent but comforting and he fell into a chair feeling a tiny bit more settled. He was still awash on a stormy ocean on a rickety raft with a tornado incoming, but it felt like he’d at least just found a single life-preserver for all the good it would do him.

Lou Ellen had chosen the table. There was a half a cup of coffee waiting, and she picked it back up, watching him as she sipped. Something in her gaze reminded him or his father; though Lou Ellen was a more benevolent version he still felt that if she put in a little bit of work she’d probably see right through him.

“How’s everything going?” she asked.

He got the distinct impression that there was an undertone to that question, some kind of subtext he was probably supposed to pick up on but he was too tired, too distracted, to even bother attempting to work out where she was coming from.

“Good,” he lied automatically.

“Uh huh,” Lou Ellen said. There was no judgement at all in her tone, but again Nico felt something intangible just around the corner.

“You know you walked up and down outside that window about eight times before I went out and got you?” Lou Ellen asked.

“You shouldn’t have left your drink unattended,” Nico responded.

Lou Ellen raised an eyebrow.  

“I can see why Will likes you,” was all she said.

Which surprised Nico because he was still having trouble figuring that out, and half the time Will himself seemed to have trouble working out exactly what the point of Nico was.

That was unfair.

Will was –

He didn’t really know what Will was.

He was edgy and he was taking it out on his boyfriend because Will was an easy target at the moment.

“He’s not what people think,” Lou Ellen added. She was watching him again. Nico hated being watched, hated being in the spotlight, it made him want to duck out to run away, change his name and face and identity and only leave his house under the cover of darkness.

And he did feel like he wanted to shrink, could feel himself unconsciously making himself smaller, hunching his shoulders into his default defensive posture. But he was also aware that, actually, he didn’t feel as exposed as usual.

One day, he thought, Lou Ellen would rule the world. And she’d do it so silently and subtly that no one would even notice she’d taken charge.

“What do people think he is?” Nico asked.

Lou Ellen’s smile flickered on. 

“Interesting question,” she said. “Do you want a drink?”

Hanging out with Lou Ellen wasn’t anywhere near as terrible as Nico might have imagined it, although that might have just been because interacting with her offered a strong contrast with what was to come. She didn’t really offer any further insight into the question of what Will’s deal was though she did reaffirm that Will really did like Nico and she had added in a vaguely threatening manner that it would be a real shame if one (or both) of them screwed it all up because they were being clueless morons.

In total he spent about half an hour with her and managed to do it all without planning an exit route or a variety of implausible excuses as to why he had to leave. Either that was a testament to Lou Ellen’s social skills or a testament to his personal growth. Eventually however, as mildly pleasant as the impromptu coffee date had been, he had to stand and explain he had to go visit his father.

“Good luck,” Lou Ellen said. “And don’t worry about Will. He’d stupid but I don’t think he’s quite stupid enough to let you go.”

She seemed to think for a moment.

“At least Cecil and I won’t let him be that stupid. And I think Kayla would strangle him if he did anything to jeopardise you two. So you’re probably safe.”

Nico shrugged in vague acknowledgment.

“I mean it,” Lou Ellen said. “He really likes you Nico. Anyone can see that.”

It was a relief to hear someone say that, even if that someone wasn’t Will professing his undying love directly - a situation he had to admit may be a little unrealistic this early into a somewhat complicated relationship. If that thought was a train it usually ran along the _does Will like me_ tracks which lead in turn to Self-Doubt and Overthinking Stations. Occasionally the thought went on a little detour to _if I want him to admit he loves me do I love him?_ town which tended to be the sort of stop that he got to in the darkest part of the night and had him stranded there, lost and panicking until the early hours of the morning.

In some ways his father turning up was almost a blessing in disguise. At least now he had something else to overthink.

Nico couldn’t remember his father having many particular traits, hobbies or quirks and his mental image of his father could be summed as cold and formal. His choice of restaurant reflected everything Nico knew about him: it was formal, somewhat aloof and distant despite, or perhaps because of, the plush and luxurious décor.

Nico felt instantly on edge. For a moment he wondered if his father had chosen the venue deliberately to make Nico uneasy, to meet him feel like a scared little kid again. The thought probably hadn’t even crossed his father’s mind, and Nico wondered if that was worse. His father didn’t have any clue what Nico liked, or maybe he just didn’t care. 

His father was already seated. Nico, who wouldn’t have changed and didn’t have anything else to wear anyway, suddenly felt more conscious than he ever had of his slightly faded black jeans and old top. He fiddled with the hem of his shirt as he sat, barely able to meet his father’s eyes. In turn his father barely acknowledged him, merely glancing over the top of the menu and casting his eyes over Nico then turning back to his food choices

“Hello father,” Nico said, a little pointedly.

“Nico,” his father said. His voice lacked any warmth, but he didn’t sound disappointed yet.

Nico had to be satisfied with that and he picked up the menu, wincing at the prices. His father spent money like it meant nothing, and Nico still wasn’t one hundred per cent sure what he actually did.

“How is school?”

Nico looked up surprised.

“I don’t go to school,” he pointed out, a slight bite in his voice.

His father did look up then, and actually put the menu down to better fix Nico with a sharp stare.

“I thought you attended with Percy?”

“Well you thought wrong,” Nico snapped. “I haven’t been to school in years.”

“What on earth are you doing with your time?”

Nico was used to justifying his life to himself. He asked himself the question almost daily. What are you doing with your life? Why do you matter? And the more morbid would anyone care if you disappeared? He had yet to come up with an answer. He wasn’t doing anything. He was drifting. He worked in a bar. It wasn’t exactly revolutionary.

“I work,” Nico answered shortly.

“You should be at school,” his father said. “A degree would greatly improve your chances in life.”

Nico felt like screaming. It wasn’t like he hadn’t wanted to go to school. Had his father missed everything that had happened? Had he missed Bianca’s death? Percy dropping out of school? Jason barely making it through and eventually moving to the other side of the freaking country to escape everything? How had he missed the fact that Nico had been working in a bar since he was legally able to and before that in cafes and shops and anywhere that would have him just to make enough to survive?

Because he wanted to get out of the restaurant and book home as quickly as possible he just made a noncommittal sound and picked his menu back up, hiding behind it.

“Your mother would not have wanted you to waste your life.”

Nico grit his teeth. His cheeks felt hot, he was holding the menu so tightly his fingers began to cramp. He was saved by a waiter turning up to take their order. His father ordered some expensive fish and sparkling water. Nico asked for a coke and a burger, and, if sniffing in derision hadn’t been beneath his father, Nico was sure he would have done so.  

“Have you considered what you are going to do next? I assume you don’t want to be doing whatever it is you are doing now for the rest of your life. I certainly expect more from you. Your sister would have finished school by now. She’d be working hard.”

Nico didn’t even have the menu to slowly strangle anymore.

“Why are you here?” he bit out.

Hs father raised an eyebrow.

“I came to see you. To offer Percy my congratulations on his engagement. Do I need another reason?”

“Usually yes.”

“Nico this surliness is getting tiring. I tried to be patient after your mother and your sister but really it’s time to start growing up now.”

The napkins were fabric he discovered as he pulled one into his lap and tried to shred it.

“Their deaths were a terrible tragedy. But do you think Bianca would still be sulking? She would have stayed strong. She would not have ended up working in a bar.”

So his father did know. And all this was one big, Nico why aren’t you halfway to becoming a five star lawyer like Jason or at least pretending like you have a clue by going to college like Percy. It was a _you’ll never be as good as your sister_.

“You wish I had died instead of Bianca,” Nico said.

“Nico!”

He didn’t deny it. Nico stood, eyes hot and ashamed at himself for getting so frustrated. His father had never been any different. He never would be any different.

“Thanks for coming,” he said.

“Sit down Nico!”

Nico just shook his head. He threw the napkin down on the table and fled.

He had never wanted to go home more. He ran up the stairs to their door and stopped dead on the landing when he saw Jason and Percy waiting outside. Percy looked bored, slumped against the wall but Jason was standing tall and alert.

“Nico!” he said. “How did it – oh.”

Knowing Percy and Jason his entire life didn’t make it any easier to cry in front of them. He tried not to notice them exchanging glances.

“Why don’t we go back to mine,” Percy said. Nico turned to him, didn’t have to say anything before Percy held up his hands.

“We won’t make you talk but –“

“-you shouldn’t be alone right now,” Jason finished.

The only thing more frustrating than Percy and Jason’s almost constant good-natured sniping and bickering, or the times they used the word ‘bro’ out loud in actual conversation, were the times they ended up finishing each other’s sentences in joint concern over him.

“I’m not a baby,” he muttered.

But he did let them lead him back to Percy’s dorm room, if only because if they were waiting outside then maybe Will wasn’t in and they were kind of right – though he’d never admit that – for once he didn’t want to be alone.

Percy’s roommate – Grover? – was in but Percy took him to the side and after a brief muttered conversation he left saying something about needing to leave the library and or get lunch. He was about as bad at making excuses as Nico.

Once he’d gone, the three of them seemed to realise that after a period in childhood during which they had rarely been apart in their free time, they hadn’t been together in years. There was a bite in the air, unsaid things and some more recent arguments on his and Percy’s side. No one wanted to bring up the past but it was becoming apparent none of them really knew what to say. Percy quickly solved this by pulling out a bottle of tequila.

“I hate tequila,” Percy explaining, pouring them all shots rather generous shots. “It’s why it’s still here.”

He held up his shot glass.

“To crappy dads.”

They all toasted. It was something they could all get behind after all. Percy’s dad wasn’t necessarily horrible, but he wasn’t around much. Jason’s dad was some big shot something and was distant and hard to live up to. And Nico’s dad was –

He took the second shot Percy offered him, coming to the conclusion he didn’t really like tequila either.

“My dad said congratulations,” Nico said. “I hope for your sake he doesn’t feel the need to pass that message on in person.”

Percy laughed but also looked a little worried.

“Do you think I have to invite him to the wedding?”

“No,” Jason said firmly.

“It’s him or me,” Nico said at the same time.

“Oh well when you put it like that –“

Nico’s eyes narrowed but Percy just took a third shot and didn’t finish his sentence.

“No,” Percy said screwing his nose up. “It’s still terrible.”

“Besides,” Jason said returning to the previous point. “If you invited him to the wedding our dads would probably turn it into world war three.”

Percy winced.

“Point made and taken.”

Nico’s phone vibrated. He was used to ignoring messages, sometimes for days, but since Will had his number and began texting him he found himself actually checking whenever a text came through.

“Is that Will?” Jason asked. Nico looked up at him, trying to figure out what the tone behind his voice was. Percy took the opportunity to snatch the phone from his grip.

“That’s really childish,” Nico scolded as Percy leant further back and away as Nico reached for the phone. Nico’s fingertips were inches away when Percy elbowed him and managed to push him back.

“Jason!” Percy called.

Jason caught the phone out of reflex.

“Don’t you dare!” Nico said, as he scrambled up. 

“Well maybe if you’d introduced me to him I wouldn’t have to –“

“You know I tried!” Nico protested. “Come on give it back. Jason!”

“What does it say?” Percy asked.

“Jason!”

“Text him back!" Percy suggested. "Invite him over!”

“Jason seriously!”

Jason glanced between Percy and Nico, phone in the palm of one hand. Nico could lunge for it but Jason had quick reflexes; he’d move it before Nico could get close.

“I’ll give it back,” Jason said ignoring Percy’s groan. “If you text him and invite him over.”

Nico debated for a moment weighing up having to introduce his boyfriend who he was currently on very uncertain standing with, against the cost of buying a new phone. Jason gave him a pointed look, waving the phone. Percy was grinning.

“Fine,” Nico said in bad grace.

He opened up the text to reply and saw that Lou Ellen had apparently told Will Nico was going to meet his father. Will was asking if he wanted Nico to come home but there was a something almost passive aggressive behind his words. Nico guessed Will didn’t like he’d had to find out from Lou Ellen.

He told Will he was fine. He didn’t invite him over. He’d just tell Jason and Percy, Will was busy.

“There,” he said.

“Do we believe he’s actually done it?” Jason asked, with far too much insight.

“Not at all,” Percy said.

Nico sighed.

“Why don’t you want us to meet him?” Jason demanded.

“I’ve met him,” Percy said.

Jason turned to look at Percy  and then back to Nico, so quickly Nico was slightly concerned he’d just given himself whiplash.

“Percy introduced us,” Nico said with a shrug. “Sort of. He kind of threw him my way.”

“And look how it worked out for you!” Percy said with a grin. Nico glared at him.

“Well how do _you_ know him?” Jason asked.

“He’s in my biology class. And he’s Connor’s brother’s friend. Besides _everyone_ knows him even if they don’t know him.”

Jason was beginning to move from looking #offended to looking confused.

“What are you talking about Percy?”

“Come on even you all the way in LA must have heard of Will Solace.”

Jason blanched.

“Solace?” he asked.

“ _I_ hadn’t heard of him,” Nico pointed out, giving Jason a searching look. Jason met his eyes, all traces of the shock that had only half a second before been written so deeply on his face gone.

“Yes but you live under a rock and only occasionally emerge in the dead of night. Everyone else has a vague idea who he is. Just like everyone has a vague idea who the Kardashians are. Did you know Nico watches the Kardashians? Maybe that was a bad example.”

“I _wasn’t watching_ –“ Nico tried to explain and then gave up.

“Jason?” he added when Jason still didn’t offer an explanation for his rapid loss of colour.  

Jason just shook his head.

“I didn’t realise it was Will Solace,” was all he would say, even when Percy began giving him a strange look.

“Anyway,” he continued, apparently mustering up some of his usual good humour. “I still think we should meet him. Even though one of us has apparently _already met him_.”

Percy shrugged good naturedly.

“Nico’s always liked me more.”

Once upon a time that might have had Nico trying to hide a blush, but now he just threw a pillow at Percy’s face. Percy protested, Jason got involved in the argument and they all got distracted from Nico’s boyfriend and relationship, which was undeniably what he wanted. But as the day wore on Jason seemed distracted and Nico noticed him on his phone several times, typing with an expression that was somehow both intent and far away. And when Nico left for home, Jason walked with him down the hall.

“How much do you like Will?” Jason asked. 

It was an odd question, even for Jason who was overly invested in Nico’s wellbeing and love life.

“Why?”

Jason shook his head.

“It’s nothing,” he said. It didn’t look like nothing but Nico was too annoyed with him to care about asing further. Jason probably just thought Will was nothing but some shallow rich kid who’d drop Nico after a few months. Which to be fair was sort of what Nico had thought when he’d met him.

“Nico?” Jason had stopped at the top of the stairs. Nico had to turn to look at him, neck craned at an awkward angle. 

"What?" he snapped. 

“Be careful?”

Nico had begun walking down the stairs the pause had been so long and he'd been so convinced Jason wasn't going to answer. He turned back in frustration, but Jason was walking back towards Percy’s room, shoulders hunched and defensive. 

"Jason!"

Jason didn't respond. 

 

 

 

 

 

 


	18. Chapter Seventeen - I Don’t Know How I’m Gonna Get Through

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nico falls ill.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title from What Have I Done to Deserve This by the Pet Shop Boys.

Nico had been living with Will for just under two months. In that time he’d had lots of ups and downs. He’d come home tired, he’d come home angry, he’d come home drunk, but he’d never had so much trouble getting through the front door. He hovered outside, Jason’s words ringing through his head, like a song that had got stuck on repeat, or an echo that didn’t know when to stop. His hands were actually shaking as he tried to get the key in the lock and he didn’t know if he was angry, or stressed, or upset.

He swayed. He threw out his arm, pressing a palm against the door to steady himself and tried again to manoeuvre the key into the lock. 

“Drunk already Di Angelo?”

Maybe he was. But in the end he’d only had two tequilas – or was it three. Either way it wasn’t enough to have his head spinning and his legs feeling like they were going to give up supporting him at the slightest provocation.

He didn’t have the strength to formulate a response, or even turn to glare at Octavian and eventually the scarecrow must have gotten bored with watching Nico fail to get into his apartment because a scrawny arm shot past him and banged on the door.

Nico was half turning to check it really was Octavian – and how awful must he look if Octavian of all people was trying to help him out? – when he heard voices. They were muffled by the door but they were coming closer, and getting clearer: Will’s and a softer female voice. They sounded like they were arguing.

The voices cut off abruptly, the door was opened, and Nico found himself staring at Lou Ellen.

“It’s not Cecil,” she called.

“Woah,” she added as Nico pitched forward and she had to grab his arm to prevent them both going over like a pair of dominos. “Careful!”

Will wasn’t far behind Lou Ellen and several emotions crossed his face very quickly when he saw Nico.

“It was just a couple of shots,” Nico mumbled.

Will gave him a very stern look, fading to exasperation when Nico swayed again. Nico had shrugged Lou Ellen off, but when he tried to do the same with his boyfriend he found Will was deceptively strong.

“Bed I think,” Will said. “And some vitamin C.”

Nico tried to tell Will he was fine, that he’d been drinking with Percy and Jason not too long ago and he’d been okay then but he couldn’t make the words work properly. Will guided him to his room, wincing slightly as Nico basically fell onto the bed.

“Sleep,” Will instructed.

He left the room. Nico eyes were heavy and he gave in and closed them. He heard Lou Ellen and Will resume their conversation. They were arguing again he could tell as much from the tone of their voices though he couldn’t hear exactly what they were saying. He thought he heard his name once, but he could also hear a strident buzzing in his ears, and a pounding that wasn’t quite in sync with his headache and once when he’d opened his eyes a monster in the corner before he realised it was just the shadowy outline of his clothes piled up on a chair. He couldn’t be sure they were _actually_ talking about him therefore and was far too weak to get up and eavesdrop cutting off any moral dilemma he may have had about the ethics of that.

He fell asleep, feeling uneasy though he couldn’t pin point exactly why. His slept restlessly and woke after an interminable amount of time to find Will sitting at the edge of his bed, checking his pulse. Will was frowning.

Nico tried to sit but found he couldn’t even pull himself up enough to rest back against the headboard. That made Will’s frown deepen.

“How do you feel?”

In the dark room, Will’s freckles were erased, and his eyes were no longer blue but a murky grey. His fingers were still gripping Nico’s wrist, in a tighter hold that Nico thought was strictly necessary. It was surprisingly comforting, like an anchor. He wondered idly what would happen if his anchor ever let go.

The thought sent little tendrils of panic shooting out from the fear centre of his brain. They began to fasten onto him making his heartrate pick up, and his breath grow ragged. Or maybe it had been like that anyway.

He reached out and clumsily tugged at Will’s arm to get his attention.

“I don’t want to fight anymore,” Nico told him. “I like you.”

“Are you sure it was only a couple of shots?” Will returned dryly, the ghost of a smile flickering momentarily.

“Will this is important,” Nico told him. He tried to sit up but failed again, and settled for a stern glare instead. “I like you. I don’t care if Jason is jealous.”

“What -?”

Will shook his head, cutting himself off.  

“Nico what have you been doing?” he asked.

“Lunch with my dad,” Nico muttered. “Shots with Percy. And Jason. Jason got all weird about me dating you. I came home.”

It occurred to him, a little belatedly, that he was giving things away that he’d normally keep much closer to his chest. Will was distracting, tapping a beat against his wrist. The dim room cast his face into shadow. Will was usually soft and bright, but in the darkness he was all lines and angles. Almost unrecognisable.

That sent another wave of strange panic through Nico, which was doubled when Will let go of his wrist.

“Don’t go!”

Will bit his lip.

“Nico I think – ouch!”

Nico had hit him in a clumsy attempt to catch his arm.

“Nico –“

The rest of Will’s words blurred into each other. His head really hurt. He let his arm fall back onto the mattress and wondered if there was anyway he could get any lower than horizontal. Even just laying was exhausting.

Will was talking again but Nico couldn’t hear him. Couldn’t really see him either because the edges of his vision began to unravel, turning black.

With little ceremony he passed out.

When he woke again it came in stages. The first thing he noticed was an incessant beeping. His mouth felt dry. His head still hurt. The rest of him ached. When he tried to open his eyes there was just harsh, burning bright light.

He closed them again quickly.

He wasn’t in his room. He remembered passing out in his room, remembered Will’s fingers around curled around his wrist, and, what in retrospect was, Will’s rising hysteria. He could still feel Will: a warmth and a weight, like an afterimage.

He opened his eyes again, more cautiously. This time the world wasn’t so bright and made more sense. Will actually _was_ curled up by his side in an awkwardly tangled position: half on a hard-plastic chair, half on Nico’s bed. He’d fallen asleep with his head on one arm. The other was still clutching at Nico’s wrist.

Behind Will was a bright blue teddy with Get Well Soon written on it’s tummy, and a balloon with a similar message. He wondered how long he’d been out. He wondered how long Will had been by his side. He wondered if he’d said anything embarrassing in his sleep.

As he moved, Will stirred and eventually sat up. The fierce light that was pure relief in Will’s eyes as he noticed Nico was awake was enough to make Nico feel even weaker.

“Hey,” Will said. His voice was harsh and cracked.

“Hey,” Nico tried to say. His throat felt thick and he sounded even worse than Will did.

“I should tell someone your awake,” Will said.

“Wait!” Nico croaked. It was a struggle to get the single word out. Will grimaced.

“Nico just rest, I can –“

Nico shook his head firmly, stopping almost immediately when it felt like an anvil came loose somewhere and began banging against the sides of his skull.

“What happened?” he asked.

Will bit his lip, seemed indecisive for a moment.

“You were poisoned,” he said softly.

That didn’t make much sense until he remembered the restaurant and the meal with his father. But they’d both ordered different things. And Nico was pretty sure he’d left before his food had even come. Then he remembered there’d been water on the table when he arrived. Had he had some? If he had it would have been so automatic he didn’t remember it now and he doubted he would even have registered it at the time.

“Will, my father,” he said.

Will frowned for a moment but then understanding dawned.

Will swore.

“I’ll sort it,” he promised. “And I’ll send a doctor,” he added as he left.

Nico was left on his own to contemplate whether or not he was now an orphan and how he felt about that.

True to Will’s word, a doctor soon arrived and began poking and prodding him. He asked questions which Nico rasped some answers to. A police officer followed who asked more questions. Nico rasped answers to those, feeling steadily more lost.

He could understand wanting to poison his father. His father radiated please poison and/or punch me vibes. Nico just didn’t know who would actually go through with it.

The police officer left and Nico was alone. The doctor had given him something that helped dull the pain in his head, but it also made him numb. He was tired, but he couldn’t sleep. He wondered where his phone had gone. Whether anyone knew where he was. How he’d even gotten here.

He heard Cecil’s voice before he saw him, followed by Lou Ellen.

“Will told us we had to come and keep you company,” Cecil announced, less obnoxiously than usual as he flopped down into a chair.

“Did he just smile at that?” Lou Ellen asked, teasing.

“I think he did,” Cecil answer, his grin a lot less subtle.

Nico was too weak to answer back. Besides he was almost glad they were there.

 “We brought food,” Cecil said, throwing a bag of pretzels down onto the duvet and following it up with a couple of chocolate bars. “We had to sneak it past these really serious looking doctor guys.”

“I brought grapes,” Lou Ellen said. “In case you felt like being healthy. But also m&ms in case you didn’t.”

Percy and Jason arrived soon after that, both wearing identical concerned expressions that Nico supposed this time were actually warranted. Jason had demanded to know in a tight, terrified voice how Nico had managed to get himself poisoned. Percy, actually displaying some tact, noticed Nico’s expression and elbowed Jason in the ribs. Percy presented Nico with an even more garish get well soon bear, this one dressed as a doctor and a basket of fruit. He looked very pleased with himself.

“It’s even more awful than ours,” Cecil said in obvious awe as Percy set it down on the table with Nico’s other gifts.

Jason and Percy were dealt into the game of poker they were playing using the food and various items appropriated from the around hospital room as chips. Nico had won himself a pair of scissors, a medium sized bunch of grapes and two Reese’s cups, which he decided translated to about 2 million pounds real money, when Will returned. He was pale and worn but at Nico’s questioning look he nodded.

Jason was watching Will closely, eyes slightly narrowed but Will hadn’t registered Jason at all: he was too focused on Nico. And now that Will was here, Nico could only focus on him. He was grateful to Lou Ellen and Cecil, to Jason and Percy for coming and keeping him company and for playing successive games of snap and go fish so loudly and enthusiastically they’d been told off by the nurses. But now he just wanted it to be him and Will.

With more sensitivity than Nico would have credited them with at first meeting, Cecil and Lou Ellen made excuses and left. Jason and Percy hung around a little longer, asking Nico questions he didn’t really know the answer to, or was too tired to answer. Their concern was kind of nice but he felt restless and he was relieved when they too left, Percy first and then Jason shortly after.

And then it was just him and Will.

Will had been quiet all the while Jason and Percy were around, hanging back with a vague restlessness that matched Nico’s. The second the door had closed behind Jason, he surged forward and hugged Nico, which was expected, and burst into tears, which wasn’t.

Will was holding him let he never planned on letting him go again, and Nico was definitely okay with that. Will was security even when he had his head buried in Nico’s shoulder and was crying hysterically. Nico felt his lip tremble as the day suddenly caught up with him. He clutched the back of Will’s tshirt with vice like fingers, while Will’s sobs racked against him, and then Nico was crying too.

Will eventually pulled away and took a few shaky breaths.

“Thank you,” he said.

Nico took a moment to process that.  

“For what?”

“Not dying.”

That brought the reality of what happened right back and Nico closed his eyes against a sudden rush of dizziness and hysteria. Will took his hand and squeezed it gently.

“Someone tried to kill me,” Nico said in a small voice. “Or more likely my father. And I got in the way. Why would someone want to kill my father?” Nico demanded as though Will would have the answer to that. “Wait my father! Is he?”

“Alive last I heard,” Will said. “But in worse shape than you.”

Nico nodded and sank back against the pillows.

“Thanks Will. I really owe you.”

“Pay me back by promising me you’ll never end up in here again. I’ve spent too much of my life in hospitals.”

“And yet you are training to be a doctor?”

“Apparently I like self-punishment,” Will said ruefully. “I’m serious Nico, you really scared me.”

“Sorry,” Nico answered automatically, and Will smiled.

“Get some rest,” he told Nico.

That seemed like a good idea. It was getting hard to keep his eyes from falling shut.

“Stay?” he said drowsily as sleep began to grab at him. It was half a plea and half a command.

“Obviously,” Will answered.

Being eventually discharged was a relief: he missed his own bed and the peace and quiet of not having nurses checking him over what felt like every five minutes. Will helped him up the stairs and unlocked the door, and Nico was content enough to lean into him.

“It’s nice having my own personal doctor,” he commented.

Will smiled at that.

“Not yet,” he pointed out.

Will made Nico lie down, and Nico complained he was actually better now: he’d been discharged and everything and he took back the comments about it being nice to have his own doctor. He shut up when Will lay down next to him.

“I missed you,” Will said.

“You only left the hospital under duress,” Nico said. “We haven’t actually been apart that much.”

But he thought he got what Will meant. Things had been messy and complicated. And in all of that he’d kind of forgotten why he’d ended up falling so hard for Will in the first place.

Things were still messy and complicated. There was now an open police investigation into a case of poisoning added to the pile of messy and complicated. He was supposed to go to the local police station as soon as he felt able to give another statement about everything he could remember. He groaned and voiced how he felt about that when Will glanced at him questioningly.

“I had to do loads of those when my mum died,” Will commented. “It was awful. And it didn’t help, none of it did. They still don’t have a clue what happened.”

Nico wondered if it would be tactless to ask what the hell Will was talking about.

“I know everyone on the planet knows who your mum is,” he said hesitantly. “But suppose, for arguments sake, that I didn’t -?”

Will, to his relief, just laughed.

“You’ve said that before,” he commented. “I thought you were joking at the time. It feels like everyone knows what happened. People are always giving me sympathetic looks or apologising. Or photographing me in clubs to prove that my mum’s death sent me off the rails.

“Wait,” he added. “Is this one of those things that you’ve built up into a big mystery?”

Nico didn’t answer that one and Will obviously read the answer in his silence.

“You could have just googled it.” Will said somewhat wryly.

“My mum was a singer. Alt-Country. She was relatively well known in certain circles but not famous by a long shot. That changed when she died. Nothing like a weird death to get people interested.”

Will’s voice was the most bitter Nico had ever heard it, but resigned too. Nico wondered how many times he’d had to recount the story.

“I still don’t know what happened. Some people think it was suicide – they seem to like giving me lots of reasons why my mum would have wanted to kill herself.”

His voice cracked. Nico sat up to watch him. Will was doing that think again where he was projecting a void between them. This time Nico hesitantly built a metaphorical bridge and then reached out to touch Will’s hand.

Will didn’t pull away, and let Nico entangle their fingers.  

“Anyway, there was all this intrigue around it and there was nearly a huge scandal involving her producers and this other company but somehow it was all hushed up at the last minute. Kayla and I were cheated out of some money somewhere along the line: there was something strange about the insurance and the inheritance and the money from her record sales but like I didn’t care? My _mom_ had just _died_.

“Someone involved was sorry or wanted to make sure I didn’t suddenly start asking awkward questions, so I got this apartment and they agreed to put me through medical school. But that was the extent of that deal. So when Kayla got sick I had to find the money to help her on my own. You know how that played out.”

“Shady boss,” Nico said in a whisper.

“Shady boss,” Will agreed.

“And now you’re getting poisoned,” Will finished.

“They were after my dad, not me,” Nico said but it didn’t seem to make Will feel any better, and it didn’t help him either.

“The most regular people have to worry about is getting papers done on time,” Will said with a sigh.

“Walking the dog,” Nico said.

“Hiding the affair their having with the secretary from their trophy wife.”

Nico laughed.

“Must be nice to be regular people,” he said.

Will didn’t answer, just gave a rueful smile and looked away.

 


	19. Chapter Eighteen - I Don’t Know How I’m Gonna Get Through

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nico has to deal with the fact his family is a nightmare and has cake.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title from What Have I Done to Deserve This
> 
> (I went away this weekend & didn't realise you can't schedule chapters in advance to come out at a certain time. From now on chapters will be out on Saturdays because I have reached the limit of my social life and won't be going anywhere for the forseeable future)

Nico had been living with Will for well over ten weeks which he would have been smugly gloating to Jason about if he wasn’t feeling so antagonistic about whatever the hell it was Jason had against Will. So, with Jason out of the equation, against all odds it was Percy who ended up being the supportive one when it came to Nico facing the fact his father had been poisoned.

Nico wasn’t sure if he wanted to see his father, but when the summons came via a rather bland text message he felt guilty enough that he pulled on a jacket and headed to the hospital, stopping only to leave a note for Will who was out grocery shopping. It was drizzling outside, and the world was a dull mass of grey. People hurried past with their heads down and their hoods up.

The hospital was an uninspiring blocky looking building. Inside they’d tried to make it both more modern and more welcoming, but neither had worked. The smell of disinfectant was pervasive. The gifts in the shop, colourful though they were, still somehow looked wilted and sad. Reminders of death lingered around every corner.

Or maybe that was just his mood.

Nico knocked on the door to his father’s room, then felt stupid for knocking. He waited nonetheless until he was bid to enter.

The hospital room was nicer than his had been with lots of realistic looking fake wood and a bigger TV, but it was emptier. There were no outrageously lurid cards, cuddly toys, or bundles of balloons. A pale, perfunctory bunch of flowers sat on a table wilting slightly under the hospital lights. His father was sitting back in a similar condition, propped up by several pillows. He had been reading a letter, but he put it down as Nico walked in, and Nico wondered for a moment if he’d wandered into a different dimension.

It wasn’t just that his father had acknowledged Nico’s presence. Nico had never known or seen his father vulnerable. Even after his mother’s death, after Bianca’s he had remained stoic: a shard of metal, cold and hard and sharp. Now his eyes were sunken, and they glittered with a feverish light. His cheeks were hollow, and he had an even more deathly pallor than usual.

Nico sat down. For the first time since coming out of the hospital he felt exhausted. He twisted his hands together to stop them shaking and stared down at his lap.

“Nico.”

His father’s voice was unexpected. Not soft exactly, but beneath the slightly raspy quality that still invaded Nico’s own voice if he talked too much, there was just a slither of something beyond the usual evenness and distance.

“I am so sorry.”

Nico froze, looked up. His father was looking at the wall ahead, gaze distant. Nico couldn’t even begin to guess what he was thinking.

“I never imagined that anyone would orchestrate an attack on me. That was an oversight, and it was an oversight that nearly got you killed. That would have been unforgivable.”

Nico didn’t know how to process that, so he didn’t, just fiddled with his ring.

“I understand thanks are in order as well? If it hadn’t been for you surmising that you were likely poisoned at the same time as me, the police would currently be investigating my murder.”

“You’re welcome,” Nico muttered shrugging.

His father sighed and let his head fall back. Barely a minute of conversation and he was already tired. Nico wondered how much worse he would have been if Will hadn’t found him when he did. Whether he would have made it at all. Given the shape his father was in now, almost a week after the incident it seemed unlikely.

His father’s eyes had drifted shut and Nico felt a thrill of fear run down his spine.

“I should go,” he said quickly, pushing himself up.

His father actually smiled at that, so quickly and faintly Nico couldn’t tell for sure that he hadn’t just imagined it.  

“I do tire out rather quickly at the moment,” he conceded. “I should like to see you again before I leave New York.”

He paused and seemed to consider something.

“If that is okay with you?”

Nico didn’t know what to do with that at all. He shrugged, a sharp jerk of his shoulders. His father seemed to accept that, or expect it, and he nodded and closed his eyes.

It was still raining outside, and the world was still grey. At the apartment all the lights were on in an attempt to pierce the gloom. Will was sitting at the breakfast bar, systematically stacking empty bottles into a fairly convincing representation of the Eiffel tower.

“There’s a bet,” Will said by way of explanation. “One I don’t plan on letting Cecil win.”

“Did you glue them?” Nico asked.

“That would be cheating.”

“Then you’re a gullible moron because that’s definitely what Cecil is going to do.”

Will thought about that and then sighed.

“You are so right,” he said. “But at least I have the moral high ground.”

“And probably a whole lot more glass to clean up in the near future.”

Will sighed again, but he didn’t disagree.

“How’d it go with your dad?”

Nico paused in the act of pouring himself a coke to try and find the words to sum it up.

“Have you seen Invasion of the Body Snatchers?”

“Pod people?” Will asked. “Cold and emotionless? I thought you said that was what he was like before.”

“Oh,” Nico said. “I haven’t actually seen the film. The opposite of that then. He thanked me. And apologised for putting me in danger.”

“First thing you’d do if getting your kid poisoned surely?”

Nico shook his head.

“Not my father.” He cradled his coke with both hands, feeling the condensation chill his palms.

“And he was so ill. It was strange seeing him so vulnerable.”

Will looked up and offered him a small reassuring smile.  

“He’s okay though,” he pointed out.

“Yeah,” Nico said. “Thanks to you.”

Will just shrugged.

“That reminds me,” he said. He handed Nico a cd.

“What’s this?” Nico asked with some suspicion.

“I know I said I didn’t have a favourite song and I stand by that. But here’s a whole lot of favourite songs.”

“No one uses cds anymore,” Nico said because the alternative would be admitted how touched he was.

Will fixed him with a look and placed a bottle on top of the stack. There was a second of silence and then the tower came down with an impressive crash and splintering sound. They both looked at the pile of shattered glass.

“I’ll clean it up,” Will said.

Nico picked up the cd and retreated to his room, leaving him to it. He sat on his bed and stared at the cd. Will had drawn a heart on it with red sharpie.

Nico’s brush with death had obviously scared Will more than Will was prepared to outright admit, and it had put some things in perspective for Nico. And so, since he’d come home, their relationship had been great: they were back to them, no more awkwardness, no more fights about nothing. And yet Nico couldn’t help wondering how long it would last.

He hated himself for that. He wanted this, more than anything. And now he had it, he was just looking for ways for it to fall apart. He shook his head, and dug out his old laptop and fished his earphones, in a knotted tangle, out of his jacket pocket.

He only had a chance to listen to the first song before Will was at his door, informing him the glass was all gone and did he want dinner.

Nico left the laptop on the bed but he found himself humming the melody as they cooked. He didn’t even realise he was doing it and then Will glanced at him and gave such a fond smile that Nico’s heart stuttered.

“It’s a good song,” Will said.

Nico just shrugged, and Will’s smile got bigger.  

Percy turned up the next morning while Will was in class. Nico had been sent home after thirty minutes at work the night before because he “looked like a zombie” and he’d been instructed not to return until he felt one hundred per cent better. He was therefore looking forward to a free day and free evening and had subsequently been hit simultaneously with the desire to do nothing and everything at the same time. After skipping out of several Netflix shows – both new and old favourites – he’d resorted to stalking around the apartment in a mild temper. Percy’s arrival felt both like a relief from boredom and an interruption and so he wasn’t quite sure how to respond when he opened the door and found him on the doormat.

He settled for a sullen scowl, but no snide greeting.

“You look how I feel,” Percy commented. Considering Percy usually just launched himself at everything with barely any more thought than was necessary to make a (bad) joke, that was a vaguely ominous statement and Nico had to wonder what new hell was dawning on the horizon.

Percy sank into one of the sofas without preamble. He looked glum.

“I didn’t know there were so many shades of blue,” he complained. “And at a certain point all wedding cake tastes the same.”

His wedding then. Nico could cope with Percy moaning about his wedding if that was all that he had going on.

“I hear your father’s being discharged today.”

Nico hadn’t known that, hadn’t spoken to his father at all since he’d visited. He _had_ spoken to Hazel who had been as uncertain as Nico about how to respond to their father’s near escape from an untimely demise.

“How’d you know that?”

“My dad spoke to your dad.”

Percy paused, seeming to struggle with something.

“Do you ever get the feeling they are keeping stuff from us?” he asked eventually.

“All the time,” Nico said.

The topic of Bianca, the last casualty of the secrets their parents kept, hovered briefly between them.

“Have you heard from Jason?” Percy asked, changing the subject as the air got too heavy. It was a little too casual and Nico’s eyes narrowed.

“It looks like you have.”

“Actually, I _haven’t_. He’s been weirdly quiet. He didn’t even answer my question about the difference between teal and aquamarine. It’s like he’s mad at me or something.”

“He doesn’t like me dating Will,” Nico said with a shrug. “Which is ironic since he was the one bugging me to get a life, and a date. Maybe he’s mad you introduced us.”

Percy shrugged but he looked troubled.

“What did he say to you about Will?”

“Just to be careful. Which is stupid. What’s Will going to do?”

Percy shrugged again.

“Kill you in your sleep?” he suggested.

“Then why would he bother saving my life? I would have died if he hadn’t figured out poison.”

“Nothing makes sense Neeks,” Percy said. “Maybe we just have to accept that. Anyway, since Jason is busy giving me the silent treatment like we’re five again, I need you to come and taste cake with me.”

“I hate cake,” Nico protested automatically. “And don’t call me Neeks.”

But he went anyway. He didn’t have anything better to do.

When Will got home later Nico was full of cake, and still restless. Will watched him pace for a moment and then asked what was up.

“I don’t know,” Nico admitted. “But it feels like something bad is coming.”

Will glanced out the window to the grey skies and drizzle that had become perpetual and invasive.

“You just feel like that because it’s dull and grey outside and we haven’t seen the sun in six years,” he suggested.

Nico shook his head. He wasn’t a running sort of person but if he’d be going around the block and trying to work out, whatever this was. When Will caught his arm, he recoiled automatically and Will took a very surprised step back.

“Sorry,” Nico said. “I didn’t know it was you.”

“It’s me and you here,” Will pointed out. “Who else would it be?”

Nico didn’t know but he couldn’t shake the feeling of - anticipation? Dread? Something horrible was around the corner, all the pieces were lining up. And Nico didn’t get how no one else could see it.

“There’s a storm coming,” Will said, looking out the window at the horizon. “Maybe that’s what’s bothering you.”

Will was right to some extent. That night the rain changed, starting to hammer at the windows as it fell in droves, striking like bullets. Thunder began rolling in at midnight, and the storm had worked itself up to full crashing, window shaking, sky splitting fury by one.

Nico sat on the couch, in the dim light, the curtains opened and letting in faint patches of colour from the city lights outside. He watched the flashes of light as they tore across the sky. Will eventually joined him.

“Couldn’t sleep either?”

Nico doubted he’d be able to sleep with or without the storm, but he nodded. Will sat down and Nico leant against him.

“Maybe we’ve reached our limit of bad things,” Will said. “I mean what else could happen?”

Lightning illuminated the room and his boyfriend. Will still had the power to take his breath away. The soft blue light hit him at all the right angles which seemed unfair.

 _I could lose you,_ Nico thought. He didn’t say it. It seemed a little morbid.

“Nico,” Will said firmly. Another flash lit up his face enough for Nico to see the complete sincerity in his eyes.

“We’ll get through this. All of it.”

Nico couldn’t believe him, but he wanted to. He couldn’t look away from Will’s eyes and the sincerity and steadiness in them. He watched as they went from dark and greyish to blue, and then back again as lightning strobed outside.

“What?” Will asked, half amused and definitely self-conscious.

Nico shook his head.

“It would only go to your head.”

 Will let out half a laugh, evidently confused. He leant forward when Nico did however and kissed him back when their lips met.

When Nico woke the storm had run itself out, but it hadn’t cleared the sky which still felt heavy and oppressive. He managed to get up without waking Will and made himself coffee, on the unlikely assumption that it would calm him.

Percy called as he was pouring out the coffee into two mugs.

“I don’t want anymore cake,” Nico said. “Possibly ever.”

“It’s not that,” Percy said. His voice was uncharacteristically tense. “Your dad and my dad are having some big meeting.”

“Okay well that’s not so bad right at least –“

“Jason’s dad has flown in.”

“Okay, so we’re all screwed.”

Percy was practically vibrating with agitation when Nico met him in the hotel lobby.

“Jason’s here,” Percy said, pushing himself away from the wall. “He wouldn’t even look at me.”

“Where is everyone?” Nico asked. He couldn’t quite imagine all of them squashed up in a hotel room, and then he could. He giggled involuntarily, and Percy gave him a confused look.

“They’ve got a function room. Jason’s dad’s company has some big important meeting there afterwards, so I guess they figured they may as well kill to birds with one stone.”

“I hope you appreciate how much I don’t want to be here,” Nico said as they crept down a corridor. They were both instinctively moving stealthily and slowly, inching towards the door Percy indicated.

“I know,” Percy whispered. “I owe you.”

“I’m going to remember that,” Nico warned him. “This one?”

Percy nodded, grimaced and then with a look of determination rapped sharply on the door.

It was Jason’s father who answered, and Percy and Nico exchanged a glance. Percy shrugged somewhat helplessly and with a worryingly reckless spark in his eyes, shoved open the door.

Percy stalked in first leaving Nico to trail rather unwillingly in behind.

The room was already stormy. Percy’s dad was nearest them lounging in a chair, in shorts and a short-sleeved shirt with rolled cuffs looking like he’d wandered in from the beach and was impatient to get back there. His eyes were distant, and he twirled a pen round and round distractedly - Nico had seen Percy do that hundreds of times. He looked up when the door opened and, despite his obvious surprise he did greet them with a smile.

Percy’s dad typically was the most approachable of the three men, and an interesting middle ground between Nico’s father and Jason’s. He owned a chain of fancy fish restaurants and bars up near Montauk beach. As far as Percy and Nico could figure he mainly left the running of these to his wife, a somewhat fierce woman who was categorically not Percy’s mother, while he spent the days surfing and fishing instead. It was one of the things that apparently annoyed Jason’s father, that and the laidback attitude and the tattoos up and down his arms and legs, and his hair – long enough to reach his shoulders which probably would have fine if it weren’t usually also windblown and messy.

There had been a lot of arguments – a lot of them serious but a lot also about hair and tattoos and reputations and responsibilities. If Jason was the mom friend then Jason’s dad was the mum friend turned up to eleven - it was just he was the kind of mom who hated fun and liked rules.

Jason’s father had always kind of scared Nico as a kid. He’d always been so serious and so stern, and he’d radiated power like a man used to control. He usually had it, and he didn’t like it when anything happened to disrupt that control. It seemed not much had changed: he stood at the other end of the window staring out and though his back was turned he was in clear command of the room. Perhaps it was a habit he’d picked up in the courtroom.

He turned and regarded them with an utterly impassive expression.

“I thought you were your father,” he said to Nico, addressing the remark as was his custom in Nico’s general area rather than directly to him. “He couldn’t have made an effort to be on time? It is his fault we are here.”

Jason’s father had a habit of not quite saying what he truly meant. Perhaps that was something else he’d picked up in the courtroom, an ability to imply something without directly saying it was probably useful for a bigshot lawyer.

“He didn’t ask to be poisoned,” Nico snapped after a quick translation in his head.

Percy shifted next to Nico. Nico stood his ground. Jason’s father held Nico’s gaze for a moment and then turned back to look out of the window.

“As nice as it is to see you,” Percy’s dad suggested, intervening. “You two really don’t need to be here.”

Nico agreed wholeheartedly, but Percy surprised him by narrowing his eyes, leaning back against the wall and insisting they were going to stay. Nico briefly weighed up the pros and cons of staying. Cons: having to witness a major war in the miniature played out between their dads. Pros: none other than potentially getting to elbow Percy to shut him up if Percy looked like he was about to say or do something stupid.

“Percy –“ he tried.

“Nico.”

He glared. Percy raised an eyebrow. Nico rolled his eyes and tried to indicate he would be perfectly happy throwing Percy to the wolves and leaving him. Percy mouthed Jason and slashed a finger across his own throat which Nico hoped was short hand for we need to stay so we can pin down Jason and grill him on why he has been being so weird and what he’s got against your boyfriend, and not shorthand for murder like the gesture usually meant. Alternatively, he supposed Percy could be worried about Jason getting into trouble for something and wanted to stay and support him which was noble enough.

Either way, it looked like they were staying – Jason himself had come in. He passed Percy and Nico, refusing to meet either of their eyes, and went over to his father beginning a conversation in a low voice. Percy was looking like he might be ready for some throat slashing and Nico got ready to elbow Percy in case he really did open his mouth, but mercifully Percy and the rest of the room were distracted by the arrival of Nico’s father.

 

 


	20. Chapter Nineteen - You Always Wanted Me to be Something I Wasn’t

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jason reveals he kind of screwed up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter Title from What Have I Done to Deserve This

Nico had been living with Will for long enough to be certain that no matter how serious things got with him, he’d never want to introduce Will to this side of his family. That was brought even more apparent seeing his father face Jason's. The two had been antagonistic for as long as Nico could remember. They all had different jobs, different hobbies, different personalities. And yet there was something similar in them too: something steely and unwilling to compromise.

Nico's life was screwed from way before he was born. The universe had started sliding into place to torture him when a powerful, rich, but morally bankrupt man who went by the undoubtedly fictitious name of Horatio Lord took on three, for a want of a better word, apprentices.  The first of these apprentices was Nico's own father. The second was Percy's. And the final apprentice was known to Nico for being scary and for having a son who bothered Nico about eating right, sleeping properly, and getting a boyfriend only to undertake an almost complete personality change and freak out when Nico crossed one of those things off the list. To the rest of the world he went by the nom de guerre Zeus.

Despite their differences, the three men initially got on well. They enjoyed the various aspects of the work Horatio sent their way. Soon though, they began to resent Horatio. Nico decided to be charitable and assume this was because Horatio was a terrible person. Equally it could have been because the three were power-hungry, impulsive and didn't think of, or care about, consequences.

“Nico?” his father asked. He did not sound happy to see Nico, but that wasn’t anything new.

His father was apparently well enough to be up and walking around, however to Nico's eyes he didn't look much better than he had in the hospital. He had at least returned to wearing a suit: tailored black as was typical, but his shirt was a deep, dark red like a rare jewel or a concentrated drop of blood. Nico had never seen his father in anything other than strict monochrome with a lean towards the darker end of the scale: his father could have walked in a flowery Hawaiian shirt and it would have only been slightly more surprising.

The colour choice did differentiate him from Jason's father.  The two shared a taste for expensive clothes: Jason's father was true to form in a dark grey suit, and a dark coat around his shoulders. Nico’s father’s clothes made him look aloof, Jason’s father’s made him look

"Now we're all here," Jason's father said, taking a seat at the head of the table and managing to rebuke Nico's without actually saying anything. Nico's father managed to stab Jason's with a glance and deigned to take a seat at the other end of the table, directly opposite. It was a familiar resentment, but different all at the same time, as though old wounds had been reopened. Somehow an already bitter relationship had been made even more antagonistic.

"I don't think you three need to be here," Jason's father said to Nico's intense relief. That was the second time he'd been given an out and he would have taken it, even if his father hadn't given him a look that quite clearly meant please go. It was the first time his father had ever bothered to add a silent please to his silent instruction and in many ways that was a warning Nico wasn't planning on ignoring.

He grabbed Percy's arm, but he didn't need to drag Percy out: Percy, too had appeared to pick up on the even more than usual level of unfriendliness and seemed perfectly happy to leave. Jason joined them in the corridor, still refusing to meet either of their eyes.

"What the hell Jason?” Percy said without any preamble. “Weren't you supposed to be on the other side of the country, ignoring us?"

 

Jason flinched but he didn't rise to the bait, or turn to face them.

Nico hadn't been quite as offended as Percy by Jason ignoring them - considering he ignored people all the time it would have been hypocritical for a start - but now he felt a surge of anger at Jason's out of character behaviour. 

" Jason?" he demanded when Jason didn’t respond. Jason finally did meet Nico's eyes then and Nico was surprised to find that Jason looked incredibly guilty.

“I’m sorry,” he said. His voice was almost a whisper.

“For what?” Nico asked, though he had a sinking feeling in his chest that suggested that subconsciously he knew.

Jason glanced around. A man in an unobtrusive suit was standing in the foyer examining a display of brochures unobtrusively. Another hovered around a vending machine though he clearly had no intention of drinking any of the sugary drinks inside.  A third had moved, less subtly, into position outside the other door to the board room and was watching them out the corner of his eye. As ever the show of power that followed in Jason’s father’s wake made Nico uneasy.

Jason looked uneasy too.

“Not here,” he said.

The man known as Horatio Lord had been found dead in mysterious circumstances. Nico never found out if his father was complicit in a murder. He never wanted to find out.

Jason took them up to his hotel room, several floors above. It had a nice view of the city, and Jason went to look out, hiding his face. Nico wondered if he knew he was mirroring his father.

"So?" Nico asked. Percy had thrown himself down onto the bed, but Nico had stayed standing. He felt jittery, the sense of dread that had been stalking him the day before was now more prevalent than ever.

"I was checking up on Will and my father found out. I'm sorry Nico."

This was obviously in Jason's mind an earthshattering statement, but Nico couldn't quite grasp the implications and Percy just looked impatient.

"That's why you've been ignoring us? Over Nico's boyfriend?"

"You really don't know who he is?" Jason said as though realising something. "You just didn't know. Because I got Nico not getting it, he would have been too young -"

"I'm four years younger than you that's actually not -"

Jason waved a hand at Nico to shut him up, and Jason looked so stressed that Nico did so, automatically snapping his jaw shut.

"I was looking into Will Solace because we kind of accidentally ruined his life and I was worried he was getting revenge by screwing up yours."

Nico stared at him blankly for a moment.

"Okay well he's not doing that so - wait what do you mean we accidentally ruined his life?"

"It doesn't matter whether he is or not, now my father thinks he's out to get us and the next thing I know he’s flying all the way out here and calling an emergency meeting."

"Over Will?" Percy asked somewhat sceptically.

"What do you mean we accidentally ruined his life?" Nico asked with more feeling this time, though he had a horrible feeling he already knew. A company involved with Will's mother's record label, a potential scandal that was covered up. Will being given a flat and a ticket to collage to shut him up. And Will had never been entirely comfortable around Percy.

"What will they do to him?" he asked.

Jason shook his head and shrugged helplessly.

"Nico!" Nico didn't turn back and he let the door slam behind him.

After Horatio Lords was found dead, suspicion had fallen on the three men who inherited his companies and his empire. But nothing was ever proven.

Nico took the stairs at a run, and ignored the sounds of Jason and Percy following him. Jason was annoyingly fast and he managed to catch up just as they reached the top of a staircase. He grabbed Nico; Nico struggled but he couldn't throw him.

"Let go!"

"Nico stop you can't just rush in there and start accusing -"

"What are they going to do?" Nico snarled. "Kill me too?"

"They're not going to kill Will," Percy said. He was hanging back and seemed uncertain. "Are they?"

"Of course they aren't," Jason said. "Percy come on!"

"You just told me that we're somehow complicit in ruining Will's life. What am I supposed to think?"

"Percy!" Jason appealed. Nico wasn't sure if Jason was pleading or ordering now but either way he was getting desperate. Percy was studying the carpet as though it held the secrets of the universe and he didn’t look up, or respond. Nico took advantage of Percy's indecision and Jason's distracted air to wriggle out of Jason's hold and resume running.

The three men had once been as close as brothers but the dividing of the empire split them. Jason's father was a natural businessman and was trained as a lawyer. Nico didn't know exactly what properties or companies he became the leader of, but whatever they were they gave him power, and lots of it. He was smart and savvy and he didn't compromise. He made deal after deal and the riches and the empire he'd inherited grew. Of the three of them, Jason's father had become the de facto leader.

Nico came to the bottom of the stairs with more force than he intended, and the momentum had him almost falling through the door at the bottom, rebounding into the corridor where he collided head first with his father coming out of function room.

"Nico?" he asked in some surprised as Nico barrelled into him.

"You're leaving? Already? What did you talk about?"

Jason's father had followed Nico's out of the room. He gave Nico a dark look which darkened as it swept over his father. He walked off in a manner that, had it been anyone else could probably have been called storming off, but Jason's father was naturally too dignified to do anything like that.

"He's incredibly high and mighty considering his daughter's boyfriend is the whole reason we're here," Percy's dad commented, leaning in the doorway.

"That's why you were here?" Nico demanded.

"Thalia?" Jason asked. He'd gone pale now.

Nico wasn't paying attention. His father noticed the intensity of Nico's stare and gave him a slightly confused look. He clearly had no idea what Nico was worried about. Was that reassuring or concerning? Nico didn't know.

"Almost entirely," his father said in a bored drawl. "I think the main purpose was to accuse us of stealing the paperwork to one of the more important properties. Apparently, Luke couldn't be working alone and naturally that means one of us must have been involved."

He paused, examined Nico closely.

"Is that what you wanted to know?"

Percy's dad had pulled Percy to the side and the two were talking in low voices. Despite his casual attitude, Percy's dad's eyes were fuming and Nico thought the accusations had cut deeper than either he or Nico's father were letting on. Jason was hanging back looking uncomfortable. When Nico glanced at him his eyes were unreadable.

"Did you talk about Will?" Nico asked.

His father seemed genuinely taken aback.

"Will?"

"Solace," Nico said. He met his father's eyes with a defiant glare. "My boyfriend."

His father raised an eyebrow a fraction and Nico remembered slightly too late that his father didn't actually know he was gay. His heart stuttered by his father seemed more interested in why Nico thought they'd be discussing Will Solace than the fact he was dating him.

"Why would we discuss Will Solace?"

Nico stared at him, searching for any traces of deception, but he couldn't find any. He still didn't quite trust his father, any of them, but he did believe that his father at least was not currently actively hunting his boyfriend down.

"The name is familiar,” his father mused when Nico’s glare didn’t let up and he seemed to realise that something was expected of him. “Solace? Ah Naomi Solace. Is this about what happened to his mother?" his father asked.

"Did you kill her?” Nico asked. To his father’s credit he looked taken aback.

"No," his father answered. "No, of course not.”

He paused nonetheless.

"I shouldn't really be discussing this Nico. And you shouldn't be looking into it. It was years ago, would it not be easier to let it go?"

Probably. Would Will want him to push? Would Will want him to find out what happened? Or would Will be angry that Nico was looking into his past, dragging up memories that clearly hurt?

"It's not fair what was done to him," Nico said.  

"It was not my side of the business," his father said but he raised his palms in appeasement when Nico glared. "I know it doesn't always seem like it, but Jason's father generally looks after his own people."

"Will's mother was involved with our family?"

The thought made his head spin. How connected were they? How intertwined could their lives get? How much was he going to have to confess and plead forgiveness for?

"I was thinking of Apollo," his father said. "He was involved too of course, and I imagine it was him they were trying to protect."

"And Will's mother was in the wrong place at the wrong time?" Nico asked. His father heard the bite in Nico's words and nodded once, grave and quiet and not picking fights. Nico thought that was it, conversation over and he turned.

"I regret what happened in the restaurant," his father said suddenly.

"You didn't poison me," Nico answered.

"I did not mean that. I'm proud of you Nico."

Nico may have stood there for a second, with a gaping expression, watching his father as he walked away.

"You okay?" Jason asked. He still couldn't properly meet Nico's eyes.

Nico shook his head.

"No."

Nico had never known what his father did, had never known what Jason’s father did. Nico’s father seemed to keep largely to himself, but Jason’s began to amass followers. Their family grew. And back then they were still a family, if a splintered and fractured one. It was ironic, horribly so, that Nico’s father had mentioned Apollo in connection with Will’s mother’s death, because Apollo’s sister had been involved in Bianca’s however indirectly.

Apollo was one of Zeus’ protégés and when his sister went missing there was a fuss. Bianca, Thalia and Percy had snuck off in the midst of all the drama, and only Thalia and Percy had come back. Nico had been against Bianca going, but Percy had promised nothing would happen. Percy had lied.

Bianca had been in the wrong place at the wrong time everyone said.

He’d never found out exactly what happened. Percy had tried to explain but Nico had never wanted to hear it. He’d been so angry.

Traffic in the city was worse than Nico had ever known it. He tapped against his leg impatiently in the backseat of the taxi as car horns blared around him. The storm had eased some of the pressure, but the weather still wasn't quite right: the sky was still grey and pollution sat heavy in the air. In the taxi he got a text from Jason. He got a feeling it was probably an apology, but he didn't feel in the mood to check it.

He got out five blocks from the apartment, unable to sit in the back of the taxi any longer. He walked as fast as he could, focusing only on what was directly ahead of him, trying to block out his thoughts. What else could happen Will had asked.

He had to ask.

He got another text from Jason and he ignored that one too.

One more block.

Tears blurred in Nico's eyes. Would Will hate him? Did Will already know? The two questions burnt in his mind.

Will was on the phone when Nico crashed into the apartment. He looked up and saw Nico's expression and stopped short.

"I'll call you back in a bit," he said and tossed his phone down on the table.

"Nico?"

"You didn't have to do hang up," Nico said.

"It was only Kayla," Will said with a slight shrug. "She'll get over it. She's hung up on me enough times. What's up?"

Kayla. Nico had sort of forgotten about Kayla. If Will was in danger would Kayla be too? No. There was no reason to think that Will would be in danger.

Or that he would be in danger from Will.

"Nico?" Will said again, pulling him down onto the sofa. "Talk to me. Has something happened? Is it your dad? Hazel? Jason?"

Jason’s name made him clench his fists. Though logically he knew Jason had only been trying to protect him, he felt furious anyway. Jason had done this: Jason was in head and now he had a million and one questions and none of them were good.

"Percy's having a wedding crisis?"

Will's voice caught ever so slightly on Percy's name. Was he scared of Percy, of Percy's family and what they'd done to his? Or was he angry? Was Will a threat?

"Uh you're going to have to help me out Neeks, I suck at twenty questions. I've lost many a drinking game because of it and I think I still owe Cecil twenty dollars but I think he's forgotten about that."

Will's eyes were so sincere.

"Nico?"

"I need to tell you something."

Will waited.

"My sister died because of Percy," Nico said. Will’s eyes unreadable. Did he already know this story? Was he humouring him?

 "I always blamed Percy anyway and I hated him for a long time. He wasn't even really responsible I guess, but I hated him. I hated his family. I hated Jason's family and I hated the fighting. And now you're going to hate me."

Will was still unreadable.

"Will I don't know how but Jason's father at least was involved with -"

"I know."

Nico's breath cut short. His head rang empty, shock silencing thought.

"You know?"

"It was Percy's father who gave me this apartment. Of course I know."

Nico couldn't read Will. He was looking away, staring intently at one of the walls. He was biting the inside of his cheek. Was he holding back tears or rage?

"Percy didn't know anything about it when he introduced us," Nico said quietly.

"I figured that out eventually too," Will replied. "He seems pretty clueless about everything."

Nico let out a slightly hysterical giggle.

"I didn't know Will. I really didn't."

"Nico I know."

"When you invited me to live here -" Nico began but he couldn't finish. He didn't want Will to tell him the only reason he'd asked Nico to live with him was because he thought Percy was ordering him.

"I thought it would make sense for you to live here," Will said carefully. "But I like you because I like you. Not because I thought that was why Percy was shoving you at me."

He sounded sincere enough. How much of a good actor was he? Better than Nico had expected he remembered.

"Nico!" Will said, almost snapping. Nico's head jerked up automatically in response.

"Look at me," Will said, his voice slightly softer now. Nico dragged his gaze up to meet Will's eyes.

"I knew Percy's dad had given me this flat. I knew he was paying my collage fees. I still don't know why. He could have murdered my mother and I could be living on blood money for all I know but I'm choosing to believe he felt sorry for me.

I knew Percy knew you and had done for a long time. And I guess at times I wondered how closely your families were involved. But honestly Nico I was far more worried about the fact I was and still technically am working for a possibly psychotic crime lord. Falling for you wasn't what I intended because I didn't want to drag you down into my world."

"Guess that's one thing you don't have to worry about," Nico said.

Will closed his eyes and tried not to laugh. He just about managed it.

"That's true," he said. "I don't have to worry about that anymore."


	21. Chapter Twenty - I'm Your Puppet

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter Title from Rent 
> 
> Thank you to everyone who has been commenting - I love all of them and they really mean so much. I will get round to responding to them (I've been ill and I want the time to appreciate and reply properly) 
> 
> Also shout out to my European readers - hope your enjoying the eurovision!

Nico had been living with Will for almost three months. The two of them had been through a lot, but at least now Nico could honestly say he didn't think Will was a murderer anymore. He was just worried that someone in his family might be. And the person they might have murdered was Will's mum. And that Will was only in a relationship with him as some sort of twisted plot of revenge.

It was all Jason's fault.

One suggestion was all it took and now Nico couldn't get the idea out of his head. Why else would Will be with Nico? What did he see in him? Somehow it made much more sense for Will to be dating him out of some twisted revenge plot that because he liked him. Will had once called him cute and funny. That was clearly a lie.

"Nico are you thinking again?" Will asked.

Will had maybe, possibly noticed his downward spiral towards almost complete paranoia. At first he'd been dismissive of Nico's concerns (which at first had manifested in needing constant reassurance that Will wasn't mad at him), sometimes gently dismissive and sometimes rolling his eyes and telling Nico he was being silly or that he had an active imagination.

As the days wore on Will had become more concerned.

"You want to go out?"

Nico murmured something vague and unintelligible in response and left it up to Will to decide whether it was agreement or dissent.

Will sighed.

"Nico please can you just look at me?"

Nico didn't want to because, whether maliciously or not, Will's eyes were hypnotising and he'd only have to look at Nico all sincere and beautiful and Nico would fold and give in and they'd end up doing something and Nico would probably have a good time and forget all about the fact his boyfriend might be some kind of super spy sent to destroy him and his family. Which on one hand would probably be good for him.

But on the other, what if that's what Will wanted?

He heard Will sigh and walk off. Nico tried to ignore the spike of guilt that stabbed him in the chest. He drew his knees up to his chest and forced himself to stay still, to not run after Will and give Will what he wanted -

"Will wait!"

Nico was weak and Will had him completely under his thumb.

Will turned and he was so hopeful, his whole being lit up with a tentative light as he watched Nico, waiting like he'd been asked.

Nico didn't really know what he wanted, what he was going to suggest and eventually Will took pity on him.

"We could go watch a movie?"

It was actually not a bad suggestion. It was something to do, which would satisfy Will, without requiring too much interaction Nico didn't know if he could fake, which satisfied him.

"Movie sounds good," Nico said.

A weight seemed to come off Will's shoulders and he seemed about ten pounds lighter, the corners of his mouth turning up in a delighted smile, he quickly squashed.

"I'll be ready in ten minutes," he said softly, clearly trying to be carefully neutral. He'd been treating Nico like a scared wounded animal for the past few days, trying not to push Nico too hard or too far, giving him space and generally being supportive and kind.

And yet no matter what Will did, Nico still couldn't bring himself to trust him.

Nico was a terrible person.

They walked to the nearest cinema, side by side. The grey clouds had finally broken, allowing sunlight to peek through, but the pale warmth didn't seem as strong as it should be. There was still a pressure in the air and Nico thought they were due another storm sometime soon.

Will was quiet as they walked, and thoughtful. Nico didn't try to make conversation, and left Will to his thoughts whatever they might be. Worry or glee at Nico's downward mood? Was he concerned, or happy that his plan was working out perfectly.

In the theatre lobby, Will left Nico staring at the playlist and went to buy popcorn. Nico must have zoned out staring at the billings because the next he knew Will was beside him again

"Are you okay?" Will asked. "Not dizzy or anything? I don't want to have to call another ambulance for you."

His tone was light, teasing but there was something beneath it, and Nico realised Will was actually concerned. Irrationally concerned maybe, but concerned.

"Fine," Nico said.

Will's answering smile was pale to his normal smiles, like the reflection of who he used to be.

Nico felt another one of those stabs of guilt.

"What are we watching?" Will asked.

Nico had forgotten he was supposed to be choosing the film.

"Uh Bridesmaids," Nico said, picking the first movie his eyes fell upon.

Will raised an eyebrow but didn't comment. Nico just shrugged.

If he'd expected Bridesmaids to be a nice, cheerful rom com that was light enough that he could pretend to be invested in the plot for an hour or so, so that Will would be happy, while really thinking over and over, round and round, he was mistaken. Bridesmaids, it turned out, was a horror movie.

Will particularly seemed oddly affected by it and Nico suddenly felt the distance between them sharper than ever when Will jumped, jogging the stranger on the other side of him rather than Nico. Jealously warred with guilt then and Nico took his hand, lacing their fingers.

Jason and his stupid accusations could go to hell. He was screwing up a perfectly good relationship over nothing.

Probably nothing. Because there was a chance however slim that -

_Stop it Nico._

The next time Will jumped it was Nico who ended up being elbowed, and the popcorn spilt on the floor. Nico smirked at him and Will looked sheepish.

Nico had seen worse films. The shapeshifter was creepy, as was the idea it was among them and no one knew where or what it was plotting or who it would manipulate next, but it didn't really scare him. It was scaring Will and Nico didn't really understand why since Will too had seen worse and most of the time had actually come out better than Nico. Reyna had been cautious of Will as a match for Nico since, on the surface of it, they had so little in common, up until she'd watched a horror with the two of them and it had been Nico that was grabbing at Will, Nico who wouldn't sleep unless Will was next to him.

It was the first time Nico had really understood that somehow Will had been equated with safety for him, and he'd fallen a little further.

They got to about twenty minutes from the end (Nico judged) and were well into the climax when Will suddenly stood and told Nico he'd meet him afterwards. Nico watched him go stunned, and then his brain kicked in and he stood and followed.

It took him a full five minutes to find Will and a traitorous voice in his head wondered if Will was making a call to have him assassinated. Then he found him outside, sitting on the pavement in a patch of sunlight.

"Smart," Nico said. "Shadows can't get you in the sun, it's their biggest weakness."

Will closed his eyes and gave a rueful smile.

"You didn't have to leave," he said.

"I wasn't overly invested. The cheerleader one was going to get killed, the snooty businesswoman was the shifter and the one about to go off to collage was going to survive at the end."

"You see it before?" Will asked.

"No but it was really cliche and predictable. We've seen worse."

Will nodded.

"I know," he said. "I know. I don't know what got me. The special effects weren't all that good -"

"I'm pretty sure at one point they were using ketchup for blood."

WiIl laughed shakily.

"Real blood doesn't look a thing like that," Will agreed. "The consistency was all wrong." Nico was about to mock him for having a good knowledge of blood when he remembered Will quite frequently ended up covered in the stuff in his role as a medic to a scary gang so he shut his mouth and decided not to ruin his new hour long streak of acting normal around Will by starting another fight about Will's extra curricular activities.

"Exactly," Nico said. "So you're fine? You know no shapeshifter is going to come and kill you in the middle of the night."

"In theory," Will said.

He was actually trembling Nico realised.

"Will come on," Nico said, trying for the gentle sincerity Will was so good at when it suited him, and failing almost entirely.

"It was just a movie. A bad movie."

"I know," Will said again but he wasn't looking at Nico.

Nico stood, pulled Will up with him.

"Forget about it," Nico suggested. "Let's go do something else."

His something else was unspecified and he and Will ended up walking around a bit, searching for the something else. Will didn't feel like eating, Nico didn't want to go into the arcade because he thought the lights and sounds would make him want to stab something and eventually they just sat found a bench and sat in silence. Nico wasn't entirely sure if it was a comfortable silence or an awkward one. He alternated between trying to shut off the part of his brain that was busy formulating a list of accusations against Will, and watching Will watching the sky, eyes tracing the patterns the sunlight made as it filtered through the edges of the gathering clouds.

Will remembered he had to go into library, and Nico was left to walk home alone. Jason had tried to call him several times since the meeting between their fathers. Nico had picked up exactly once to ensure that, to the best of Jason's knowledge Will was currently completely off his father's radar, or at least so near to the bottom of his list of priorities he may as well not be listed at all. Jason had affirmed his father seemed preoccupied with Thalia, the theft and the associated drama and had lost interest in Will.

Every time he'd called since Nico had ignored him. He tried again as Nico wandered back to the very empty apartment, and Nico again swiped the call away. Then the thought of Will, so vulnerable and scared after a film that really shouldn’t have bothered him, had him tapping to call back.

Jason was the answer, Nico realised. Jason had started it and maybe Jason could stop it.

The relief in Jason's voice when he answered the call was so strong that Nico almost felt bad for ignoring him. Almost.

"What if Will really is just using me?" he said interrupting Jason's greeting.

Jason was quiet for a moment.

"Do you believe he is?"

"No," Nico said firmly. 

"I didn't," he added.

"Well I don't think I did," he clarified.

He ran his free hand through his hair.

"This is all your fault Jason. I would never have thought it but now you've got me wondering. He knew about Percy. He keeps being nice but it's like he knows exactly how to control me, we were just watching a film and he freaked and he wouldn't normally freak but he did and I went after him and it was so manipulative. Except maybe it wasn't. How am I supposed to know?"

Jason was quiet.

"Jason!" Nico snapped. "Help me. This is your doing."

"I don't know what to say," Jason said. "I'm sorry I brought it up at all, I was trying to look into it on my own and find out either way because I knew you'd descend into paranoia."

"Well I’m there. I’m very much there. And if I don't stop with my descent into paranoia I'm going to screw up and decide Will is some kind of master criminal. So this is your responsibility. Fix it."

Nico had reached the apartment.

"Still with Will?" Octavian asked as they passed in the lobby.

Nico ignored him, tried not to think about Octavian as he climbed the stairs. Octavian had always told him to stay away. Nico had always thought Octavian was a lying, reprobate but maybe his warnings meant something after all.

"Nico are you listening?"

"What?" Nico snapped, stress bleeding into his tone. "No, look Jason I'll talk to you later alright?"

It was a lie.

When Will came back from class, tired and stressed, and Nico refused to have dinner Nico saw the first signs of frustration in Will, his patience and sincere give-Nico-space-and-let-him-figure-whatever-this-is-out slipping. There was a flicker of annoyance in his expression and he seemed about to say something, but then he just gave up and swapped to resigned, shoulders slumping. 

"Alright," he said and left Nico.

Nico felt another stab of guilt and he ignored it.

Will ran out of patience after a fraught week. He probably would have lasted longer if he didn't have so much work. Or perhaps the work had been a distraction and without it to return to he would have lost it with Nico much quicker.

"I don't get it," he finally snapped. "It's _my_ mom who's dead. If anything I should be the one sulking."

"So sulk!" Nico had responded waspishly. It was the wrong thing to say, Nico knew it, but it came out along with an all too familiar rush of anger.

He saw Will draw back and something splintered between the two of them.

_We're not broken, just bent_ Pink had sung on the first track of Will's heart CD. Pink didn't know anything.

Nico had stopped bothering to use his own room when it occurred to him that Will's was bigger, his bathroom was nicer, the mattress was better. Plus Will's room had Will in it. The first few times he'd simply been talking with Will on the bed and at some passed out, curled next to him. Will had obviously caught onto the charade pretty quickly, faster than Nico himself had as it turned out, but he had kept it up with a slight smile. 

It felt weird sleeping in his own bed again. It made his heart twist when he heard Will cry out in his sleep, the sound muffled by the wall between them. Nico lay still, paralysed. He wanted more than anything to calm Will's nightmares, but he couldn't make himself move.

Will was taking over the living room again, textbooks piled around him and bags under his eyes. He didn't greet Nico when Nico came in to try and watch TV, didn't even seem to register him.

"Hey," Nico said.

Will didn't respond.

"Make sure you drink something," Nico told him in a small voice.

Will didn't answer and Nico left, wondering how they'd managed to fall back into being little more than strangers and why he couldn't just go and apologise, walk over to Will and beg his forgiveness. Kiss and make up.

Percy was probably one of the least observant people in the world when it came to relationships. Nico had had a crush on him for years and he'd never even noticed. But when he came round one day to invite in inverted commas Nico to go suit shopping for the wedding he winced.

"It's like an ice age hit," he said. "Please tell me you're not still hung up on the idea that Will's manipulating you?"

Nico shrugged.

"Jason meant well but he was clearly wrong. He never saw the two of you together. Will likes you Nico. He couldn't fake the way he looked at you."

Nico really, really wanted to believe him.

Will didn't ask where he was when he got home. Nico supposed that was fair enough, he seldom asked where Will went when he went out these days, and he hadn't commented on the blood staining Will's sleeves when he'd come home at 3am. Octavian had and Nico had just let the comment wash over him, too tired to form a response.

"You lasted longer than the last roomate," Octavian commented as Nico walked away.

The second time Will cracked Nico had been texting Hazel about some projects he was doing and Hazel was texting him about why he seemed so sad. Nico didn't know how that had turned into an argument, or even that at some point Will had come home, but suddenly the two of them were shouting and Nico was vicious, more vicious than he had any right to be.

"At least I'm not healing dangerous criminals!"

Will had flinched back and all the rage that had been burning through Nico suddenly vanished. He had crossed the line, he knew. And so, when tears began blurring against the blue in Will’s eyes, and he turned and fled back to his room, slamming the door behind him Nico didn't follow. Will wouldn't want to see him now.

Will apologised first which was typical. Nico tried, and failed, not to be mad at him about that.

"I don't get it," Will said. "What is going on in your head?"

Nico didn't tell him. Even if he'd wanted to he couldn't form thoughts clearly explaining the rationale behind how he thought the only reason Will would ever like him was out of some twisted revenge plot, let alone explain that to Will.

Will had waited, eyes pleading but Nico just shook his head. And then it wasn't a wall between them anymore but an abyss.

To his surprise the next time Jason called it wasn't Jason at all but Piper.

"Jason told me," she said. "He feels awful but he didn't know how to help. He thought maybe I'd be able to give some advice."

Nico liked Piper but he really didn't think she'd be able to help, and besides he didn't know exactly how much Jason had told her.

It was a Thursday when Nico found himself in the living room with Will. Neither had been in the same space without something to do for a horribly long time: Will was burying himself in studying again and Nico was getting good both at avoidance techniques and finding things to do that meant he wouldn't have to think and form a conversation.

In retrospect Nico knew what was coming. It was the feeling of dread again, but more localised his time, as he watched things spiral out of control between the two of them.

He didn't know where to go, so he went to Reyna's. She told him he was an idiot and he couldn't help but agree. She tried to talk to him, casual conversation at first but then gently trying to get him to open up. Nico didn't - couldn't respond. She asked him how he felt and he didn't know how to respond to that either. He couldn't feel anything. He was numb.

 

 


	22. Chapter Twenty One - We’ve Got No Future, We’ve Got No Past

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nico has a hard time coping with recent events and manages to miss one or more fairly major events.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title from West End Girls

Nico had been living –

Nico wasn’t living with Will.

The worst part was in the morning, before he opened his eyes. Reyna’s spare room was tiny ad the sofa bed was uncomfortable, and yet each morning before he opened his eyes when his world was still half blurred with the dreams he had when he and Will had never broken up, for just a minute he thought he was back hom- back at Will’s. In that moment, just before he opened his eyes he could pretend.

The smell of coffee could be Will making him his first cup of the day. Will insisted he only did it because Nico was such a disaster in the mornings he didn't quite trust the task to him, and cited the fact Nico had once tried to put the coffee beans in the toaster as proof. No matter what Will said, it took him very little time to learn how to make Nico's perfect cup of coffee, better than Nico himself could make it. Will could do a lot of things better than Nico could do them. At times it had seemed Will knew Nico better than Nico knew himself.

Eventually he'd have to open his eyes and face the cold winter sun coming in through the cracks in the blinds. Face the day. Face that he'd thrown Will away. Face that his life was now a cold spare room in his friends apartment.

Reyna must have called Jason and Jason must have freaked out and dropped whatever he was doing in LA to fly over because at some point he ended up in Reyna's flat. Nico wasn't trying to ignore him this time but his words were just white noise. Jason's concern barely registered, nor did the hushed conversations Jason and Reyna had about him. Then Jason was gone again. Nico didn't notice him go either.

Percy clearly had no idea how to help either but it didn't stop him trying. He too came to Reyna's talking about everything from his own wedding to mythomagic in an attempt to get Nico to engage. But Percy had no idea how it felt. He'd only ever been with Annabeth, the two had never fought like Will and Nico had fought. Maybe that should have been a sign. Ever since they'd officially started dating there had been problem and drama and fight, one after another in a never-ending line.

Maybe that should have been a cue, the sign from the universe that the two weren't going to work out. That Nico would destroy Will and he'd destroy their relationship. That he should walk away.

He should have listened.

He lost track of time. The days blurred into an endless line, waking up to the brief desperate lie that he was still at home, that everything was okay. He didn't eat breakfast anymore, couldn't face it. That always made Reyna frown but he didn't see what the big deal was - he hadn't eaten breakfast before Will. He usually skipped lunch too, which made Reyna frown more but he wasn't hungry.

He and Reyna would have dinner. She'd usually order take-out because, in between taking classes far too advanced for normal people her age in politics and business and ancient civilisations, she'd forgotten to learn to cook. Nico would pick at the food, Reyna would hold herself back from trying to force him to eat. Then there was work. Work was easy because Nico could zone out legitimately, mixing drinks on autopilot, glad for the dim lighting so people couldn't see how empty his eyes were.

Everything reminded him of Will. Once he'd tried to walk down his old street, heading on autopilot for home before he remembered it wasn't home. He'd gotten close enough to see the lights on in the windows, the curtains open and undrawn before he realised his mistake. He'd frozen, feeling a stab of something unidentifiable and tangled. He stayed clear of the apartment building now, refused to go within five blocks of it. There were too many memories surrounding it: the ice cream parlour Will liked to drag him to, the Chinese Will ordered from because they knew about his hatred for fortune cookies, the spot under the streetlamp where he'd kissed Will for the first time.

Nonetheless, even with avoiding large sections of his part of the city, and refusing to watch TV, or drink coffee, or eat he thought he was coping with his first break up reasonably well. He hadn't gotten drunk yet, begging Will for another chance, if only because he didn't think he deserved another chance. He hadn't texted Will's friends asking how Will was, and maybe that was because he didn't have their numbers and there was a good chance they would kill him, but he hadn't done it and that was an achievement right?

Reyna, and presumably Jason and Percy, apparently disagreed because one day Hazel was in Reyna's kitchen cutting up tomatoes for a salad. The kitchen smelt of fresh baked bread, there was cheese and cold meats - Reyna's idea of a fancy picnic lunch probably brought in especially.

"I thought we'd go to park," Hazel said.

Nico didn't want to go to park, but he didn't want to upset Hazel in the same way he was perfectly happy turning down Percy and Reyna's offers for company, so he agreed.

It was too cold for a picnic really. There had been threats of snow, but it hadn't arrived yet and the sky was still a dull pale blue. Nico ate a carrot and then when Hazel frowned, picked at a sausage roll and a bit of cheese.

"Are you going to talk about it?" Hazel asked.

"I'm okay," Nico said.

"You've been a zombie for three weeks. Reyna said you don't eat, you don't respond to anyone. Percy came round at one point to tell you there'd been another attempt on Dad's life and he said you didn't even seem to hear him."

Nico hadn't heard that. He didn't even remember Percy coming over, just the texts he sometimes read but didn't answer. He also hadn't realised it had been three weeks already. Will would be on break now. He wondered how his essays went.

"Nico please!" Hazel said, drawing his attention back to the present. "You turn up at Reyna's and act like you're not even really here, you don't even tell us what happened. We're just left to assume you -"

"Broke up with Will," Nico finished. "We broke up Hazel."

It was the first time he'd it out loud. It sounded wrong.

Hazel's eyes were soft.

"I'm sorry Nico," she said. "I'm really sorry. I know how much he meant to you."

Nico closed his eyes. He hadn't cried yet, not even as he'd been making his way to Reyna's right after it had happened. He hadn’t felt sad - just empty. Numb. He still felt numb, was still in shock. Which was strange because he'd seen it coming. And it had been him who -

"Nico?"

He'd been ignoring Hazel again.

"Nico I know it probably hurts like hell but you can't keep on like this. Things are getting bad. After they came for Dad, someone attacked Jason on the street."

Hazel paused to give a small smile.

"They actually came off worse. But that's not the point. At the moment Nico if someone came to attack you I don't even think you'd notice."

It was a valid point. Nico also didn't think he'd notice. He barely noticed anything these days unless it was a pair of bright blue eyes that turned out to be the wrong shade, or a flash of golden hair that he then realised didn't catch the sun in the right way.

"I'll stop going out as much," Nico promised. It was an easy thing to promise. The only times he went out at all were when he had to go to work. "And I'll be on the lookout for potential murderers."

Hazel didn't look entirely happy with that solution, but she nodded and accepted it.

"I mean it," Nico said. The expression on Hazel's face was clearing his head slightly. "I'll be careful. Is dad okay?"

It was the right thing to say because some of the weight lifted off her shoulders. She told him about the attempted murder but Nico lost all interest in the plots and intrigue after she told him he was actually alright. Luke and Thalia and Jason and Percy could fight all they wanted. He was done with all of that.

An indeterminate number of days later, Reyna forced Nico to break his promise about not leaving the house when she sent him for proper coffee to keep her going while she tried to fix the kitchen sink which was challenging her refusal to spend money on a plumber.

The nearest cafe turned out to be the one he'd sat in with Lou Ellen and his heart stuttered wondering if she was there, if Will was there but the odds of that were astronomically low. Nico left without seeing either of them and he didn't know if he was disappointed or relieved.

Was Will okay? Had the sunlight come back into his eyes yet?

Without meaning to, Nico began spending more and more time in the coffee shop. At first he'd go and get coffee before work. Then he went for breakfast too, picking up a pastry he usually ended up picking apart and throwing in the bin when he couldn't bring himself to stomach it. So he started picking up breakfast for Reyna instead.

Then when Reyna's apartment became too small, and her endless muted concern became too much he began going to for an hour or so. He'd watch the rain outside, or the sky turn from a dirty grey to a light brown as the sun dipped below the horizon. Before he knew it, he was there every day and the baristas knew his order by heart. Other than Will, no one had ever know his order by heart before.

He didn't know what he was waiting for, though it should have been obvious, until Lou Ellen came in one day, trailed by Cecil and - no it was some other blonde completely unconnected to either of them.

Lou Ellen spotted him first and nudged Cecil. They ignored him at first, joining the queue for drinks. Nico had diverged from the beaten path and tried - for the first time - a green tea as Lou Ellen had suggested once. The dregs sat at the bottom of the cup in soggy patterns. He wondered what they said about his future - to him they just sad and bleak.

Lou Ellen sat first, Cecil beside her. Lou Ellen slid him a fresh tea. None of them said anything.

"You here to kill me?" Nico asked eventually when the silence became too much.

"Thought about it," Lou Ellen said. "What did I say Nico? What was like the one thing we asked of you?"

Nico closed his eyes as his chest constricted.

"We changed our mind when we saw how sad you are," Cecil said, uncharacteristically solemn.

Nico frowned then, letting that distract him from how his eyes were burning.

"Then why are you here?"

"When Miranda told me she'd seen someone matching your description in here like all the time, looking like joy had been banned we figured it must be you. We thought we'd try and cheer you up. You know as far as we can under the circumstances."

Lou Ellen was gentle and somehow that made it harder.

"Why?" Nico demanded. "Why on earth would you do that? Why don't you hate me?"

"You're our friend," Lou Ellen said, managing to make it sound like Nico was an idiot for thinking otherwise.

Nico pushed his tea away, the liquid burning in his throat and stomach, and sniffed the tears away, turning so neither of them would see him cry. Cecil tactfully got out his phone. Lou Ellen passed him a napkin.

"How's Will?" Nico asked thickly when he'd forced the pain into submission.

"Don't know," said Cecil. "He left a couple of weeks ago. Dreadful before that though so we're assuming the same."

"Left?" Nico said, in sudden alarm. "What do you mean left."

Cecil and Lou Ellen exchanged glances.

"Left as in his apartment is now empty," Cecil said. "He's staying with Kayla and his aunt I think."

Nico stood on shaky legs. He ended up in the bathroom, doubled over the sink as he tried to decide whether it was just mild hysteria or whether he really did want to throw up.

"Nico?"

"Should you be in here?" he asked haltingly between panicked breaths.

"Probably not," Lou Ellen admitted.

"Definitely not," Cecil said who was looking more uncomfortable about Lou Ellen being in the men's bathroom than Lou Ellen herself did.

"Nico I'm going to be honest I don't really know what you expected."

Nico didn't know what he'd expected either. They'd been wrong and fighting and miserable and it had been Nico's fault. Nico had thought maybe now he was free, Will would be happier. He vocalised that thought and it actually made Cecil laugh. There was no humour in it though, just pure disbelief.

"Are you happy?" he asked.

No. He wasn't.

Nico forget his promise to Hazel as he left the coffee shop and walked paying very little attention to his surroundings. Someone could have come up to him brandishing a knife and Nico would have been oblivious. He then forgot his promise to himself, and gravitated towards home. There were no lights on in the apartment this time. It was cold and empty.

Police sirens echoed as he walked back to Reyna’s, reverbing around the city streets. He nearly missed the police tape blocking off the pavement outside a restaurant, and had to be caught by an officer. The lights on the cars flashed blue and red. Nico apologised vaguely, circumnavigated the tape and went back to Reyna's.

Reyna was in front of the TV the next morning eating cereal with a slightly glazed expression. The morning news was on, talking about a triple homicide, and an election and the coverage for the two topics seemed to blur into one. Reyna was only paying token attention to the anchors as they discussed alibis and statistics, voter confidence and blood.

"You know we might lose the bar?" Reyna said as Nico entered the room. Reyna always referred to work as though it was hers, but that was just Reyna. She threw herself into everything she did, and she gave it her all. If the bar did change hands and their jobs were in danger, that might actually be a good thing for Reyna: she could do so much better.

And there were other bars Nico could work at.

Reyna was working a shift without Nico that night. Nico stared at the ceiling and counted the cracks and tried not to cry.

The bar did change hands and the new owner made it clear that he was looking to replace the current staff as soon as he could pull someone else through the door. Reyna continued working, but Nico gave up on his shifts immediately. He saw no reason to ever go back.

Lou Ellen suggested he get a job in the coffee shop that had become his second home. She and Cecil were taking it in turns to keep him company and, he suspected, were also trading keeping Will company. At first Nico asked after Will, but the answer was so discouraging he stopped after a while and neither Cecil or Lou Ellen brought him up.

Nico thought about Lou Ellen’s suggestion but eventually didn't think he could cope with having to deal with so many people all day. A bar had been bad enough, but at least most drunk people didn't notice if you were ignoring them, it was usually not so busy that people started shouting but busy enough that people were just grateful when you handed them a drink.

Cecil suggested he become a professional shut it, or extra in a horror film since he already had plenty of practice in staying indoors and he looked like a zombie. Nico had dismissed film extra out of hand, and he didn't have anyone paying his rent anymore so shut in looked unlikely.

The snow began to fall and it dulled the sound of the city slightly. Now when the sirens rang they didn't have the same bite, but the red and blue reflected off the snow brighter than ever. Two cars shot past Nico as he walked back to Reyna's. Another was parked by the mouth of an alleyway. An officer was unrolling the tape, beginning to string it up as more cars arrive.

Red flashed again and that caught his attention. He looked down and saw it in the snow. The smell hit him then and he didn't know how he hadn't noticed it before, sharp and metallic like rust. It didn't look anything like ketchup.

His chest clenched as he thought about all the people it could be - Reyna, Jason, Percy, Lou Ellen, Cecil. Will. He forced himself to follow the trail of blood, to the shadows of the alleyway. It was just an anonymous man with brownish hair and a scraggly beard. He didn't know why he'd expected any different.

He'd left his phone at Reyna's. He often forgot it these days, left it lying all over the place. As soon as he walked through the front door Reyna brandished it at him.

"Jason's been calling for the last hour," she said. "And then he started calling me. Call him back or he'll come over here and say whatever it is in person. In fact the only reason I think he hasn't done that already is because he's supposed to be in class."

"He's in LA; he's not going to do that. You call him. Just tell him I'm fine," Nico answered dully. "Tell him I'm eating properly and sleeping properly and I'm well on the road to recovery."

"He transferred here two weeks ago."

Nico hadn't known that. He guessed it was one of those things he'd missed.

"And I'm not going to call him and tell him that because I'd be lying," Reyna continued. "Besides he said it's urgent. It's about Will."

Nico's head felt light and his legs barely managed to get him shut away in Reyna's box room. His fingers on the other hand felt incredibly heavy and it made it hard to bring up Jason's number on the screen. He held the phone to his hear, hands trembling and his arm like led and listened to the dial tone and the thudding of his heart.

Jason answered after two rings.

"I was literally about to come over," he said. "Why didn’t you tell me Will is working for _Luke_?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I'm going away next week so I'll be skipping a week! See you when I get back and I hope the wait isn't too long. Thank you once again to everyone who comments - they really make my day - but also to everyone reading. x


	23. Chapter Twenty Two - Call the Police There's a Mad Man Around

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nico realises Will is in danger and sets out to warn him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter Title from West End Girls by the Pet Shop Boys.

Nico hadn't been not living with Will Solace for long enough to get over him. He wasn't sure if there'd ever be enough time in the world that could allow him to get over Will. Jason's words hit him like a sledgehammer as some part of his unconscious made connections faster than his conscious could process. His heart, already hammering, sped up.

“Who’s Luke?” he asked before he caught up with himself.

“I knew he was working for someone,” he added when he’d reached a point where he all his thoughts had arranged into something almost satisfactory.  

"You knew?" Jason exploded at the other end of the phone. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Is this still about whether or not Will's got some secret plan to destroy me? Because if he did it worked."

Jason let out a frustrated hissing sound and that brought Nico up short. Jason didn't get frustrated. Jason didn't get angry.

Jason was _scared_.

"I'm coming over," Jason said. "I'll be round in ten."

Nico had to be content with that. It didn’t mean he had to like it. Ten minutes had never seemed so long before. He couldn't sit still as he tried to clutch at the connections he'd made without knowing, tried to drown baseless fears that perhaps weren’t so baseless if only he could put together the dots. But he couldn't think straight, and he gave up resorting to pacing round his small room with his heart in his throat.

When Jason hammered on the door, Nico was up like a shot managing the distance between his room and the hall in what felt like a heartbeat. He passed Reyna who was reaching for the handle, and wrenched the door open.

"Jason," Reyna greeted, sounding remarkably calm.

"Jason!" Nico said with far less chill, grabbing him by the arm and pulling him inside. "What's going on? Where's Will? Is he okay?"

Jason was shaking his head and made his way into Reyna’s living room as Reyna tactically vanished. Nico was practically vibrating with impatience as he threw himself down on the floor opposite Jason It was then Nico noticed Jason was bleeding, a deep scarlet patch blossoming on the grey fabric of Jason's sweatshirt. Jason saw Nico looking and covered it up with a hand.

"It's fine," he said. "Just a scratch."

Nico swallowed the lump in his throat. Just a scratch took a place in his head at the back of the long queue of things that gave him the lump in his throat, that made his heart keep up an uneven double time.

“Okay,” he said unconvinced.

"Will?" he added. He couldn't make the name much more than a whisper but Jason understood.

"Alive," Jason said, though the way he said it didn't sound promising that that would be Will’s continued state in the foreseeable future.

"Luke's moved against my father. Turns out Horatio isn't quite as dead as people thought. It's suspected he's manipulating Luke into this crusade against my father. And yours. And -"

"Percy's," Nico guessed.

"Luke's way too smart. He's divided my father's people. He's created chaos and everyone has turned against each other, accusing each other. They won't stand united."

"When you say your fathers people -?"

"I don't know." Jason looked stressed. His hair was a mess, and longer than usual, and he put it further into disarray by running a hand through it. "I want to believe my dad's legit but I think it's getting pretty hard to find evidence for that. I mean it was hard enough after -" he broke off with a half glance at Nico.

Nico knew what he meant. Even with his own powers of denial, he still struggled with what his father did for a living, what his father might be. But he'd always thought there was a line, a line between being corrupt or heartless and actual murder. And he'd assumed his father had never crossed that. He'd hoped his father had never crossed that. No doubt Jason had thought the same.

"Anyway I know that he's got all these men and lawyers at his disposal. I mean I should have guessed."

Nico shrugged.

"It was easy to believe they were just shady, corrupt businessmen."

Jason nodded in relief.

"Luke's moving against them. It's already started and my dad's trying to fight back but it's all a mess. Horatio has been really sneaky. There are spies everywhere and -"

"Will wasn't one of them," Nico said firmly.

"You said you didn't know," Jason said kindly, but just as firmly.

"He wasn't working for Luke willing," Nico said. "I wasn't sure about whether he was trying to get back at me for whatever we did to his mother. But I was sure – still am – that he wasn't working for Luke willing."

Jason stared at him for a moment, but then nodded accepting.

"Then he's going to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

"I need to find him," Nico said.

"Find him?" Jason asked, clearly exasperated. "What do you mean _find him_? How'd you lose him?"

"He's moved out of the apartment," Nico admitted.

Jason closed his eyes and took a breath.

"Do you have any idea how suspicious that looks?" he demanded.

Nico narrowed his eyes.

"I don't care if you don't trust him," Nico said. "I do. I lov-like him Jason. I liked him a lot. And I ruined it and I'll accept that, but he's innocent and we've screwed him over once and I'm not going to let him get hurt again just because you don't -"

He broke off when his voice gave out. His breath was coming in panicked gasps.

"I can't lose anyone else," he told Jason in a very small voice.

Jason had been his very first friend and Jason was still in many ways his best friend. And Jason understood.

"Alright," Jason said. "Alright. But this is going to be really dangerous and stupid."

"You don't have to help," Nico said sullenly.

"Don't be stupid," Jason told him.

Jason suggested that the first point of call was figuring out where Will was. From there they could warn him, or shield him or, well actually he didn’t really want to think about any other ‘or’s not when they could involve telling his family and friends that Will had been in the wrong place at the wrong time.

No. It wouldn’t happen like that. Nico had to find out where Will was.

He was hesitant to get Lou Ellen and Cecil involved, but he realised that without them he’d never have a clue where Will was now that he wasn’t in the apartment. He would sleep, couldn’t rest, until he knew he’d done all he could to protect Will so despite the late hour he summoned Lou Ellen and sat in wait in a diner near their coffee shop that was still open.

 He should have been panicked, jittery and scared, but a deadly kind of calm had settled instead. It was a calm that was thin veneer over the tide of panic that lay in wait beneath but it was calm enough to keep him going.

Lou Ellen arrived in a tattered hoody over leggings. She was rubbing her eyes. Though acknowledging it was late, Nico hadn't actually realised quite how late it was and he felt a surge of pure, unadulterated gratitude that Lou Ellen had come out in the middle of the night just because he’d called.

"Is everything alright?" Lou Ellen asked. "Wait actually don't answer that, I need coffee first."

Nico felt like he owed her for coming out to see him so he waited, still with the same icy calm that numbed him to impatience. The coffee came quickly – there was no one else around to serve, nothing else for the staff to do - and Lou Ellen took a sip.

"I need to know where Will is."

Lou Ellen raised an eyebrow and appraised him.

"You look different," she said. "What's going on? You're not drunk are you?"

"Of course I'm not drunk," he said. "I just really need to speak to Will. Or find him. Or both."

"Why?"

That was Cecil's voice and of course Lou Ellen had called Cecil. He should have expected that.

"Why?" Cecil said again when Nico didn't form a response quick enough.

Nico wondered how to explain that, how much he could say.

“I don’t know that now is maybe the best time –“ Lou Ellen began gently, but Nico shook his head desperately, still searching for words but finding everything got stuck in his throat. He had to say the right things. He had to make them understand. This wasn’t about getting Will back, although a secret part of Nico idly wondered about them reuniting about Will realises the lengths Nico was prepared to go to about – no. This wasn’t about getting Will back. This was about making sure he lived. Making sure Kayla didn’t lose a brother, Lou Ellen and Cecil a friend.

"Is he in trouble?" Cecil asked with more clarity than Nico expected and he felt another surge of gratitude. Even so he briefly considered lying, it would be easier if Lou Ellen and Cecil wouldn’t directly involved in any way either Luke or Jason’s father’s people could trace, but eventually figured that would cause more problems that it would solve.

"Maybe," Nico said. "That's why I need to find him. To figure that out."

"But you guys broke up," Lou Ellen pointed out with an annoyingly sly smile. "Why would you care what happens to him?"

She knew. Cecil knew. Everyone must know Nico would do anything for Will. Everyone must know Nico still -

"I'm not heartless," Nico answered.

Lou Ellen just looked at him.

"I'm not going to say it Lou Ellen, you know why."

"As long as you know," Lou Ellen said serenely. "As long as this doesn't turn into we're better off apart I must protect you by staying away like I'm some kind of tortured hero in a teen romance. He is happier with you. You are happier with him."

Nico glared at her because she was far too perceptive and then shrugged in defeat. Cecil and Lou Ellen shared glances, which turned into an entirely silent but expressive conversation and then finally Lou Ellen nodded, and Cecil seemingly caved.

"We don't actually know where he is," Cecil said.

Nico gave him an exasperated look.

"But Kayla might," Lou Ellen finished.

"No," Nico said. "No way. I am not involving Kayla in this. I didn't want to involve you two in this."

"Too late," Cecil pointed out with a yawn and an air of disinterest in Nico’s views.

"And Kayla can handle more than you think,” Cecil said.  “She grew up with a brother who was being paid to stay un-curious by some random businessman and then a brother who was for all intents and purposes in some criminal mob gang.”

“Kayla is tough," Lou Ellen agreed.

"You two tracked _me_ down," Nico said, not entirely convinced an as of yet unprepared to  admit that he needed her. In an ideal world where Will might see Nico coming to rescue him from his shady boss and fall back in love with him despite how terrible Nico had been as a boyfriend, he didn't think Will would respond in the same way if he turned up with the news he'd gotten Will's sister killed along the way.

"It took us weeks," Lou Ellen pointed out. “And a friend who happened to spot someone who matched your mopey zombie like description in a coffee shop. No one has seen Will in about a week. Maybe two.”

Nico pinched the bridge of his nose but his veil of calm was wavering and he could feel the depths of fear below it hollow and consuming.

"Don't tell Kayla anything," he warned.

"That's easy," Cecil pointed out, a little waspishly. "We don't know anything. You haven't told us anything."

"Because you're not involved," Nico hissed.

The two stared back stonily and he gave up.

They both insisted he come with them to meet with Kayla and Nico didn't have anything else to do other than wait for Jason to come back to him for whatever information he could get from Thalia, or glean from his father. In the taxi he checked his phone compulsively, waiting for a message from Jason. None came.

Kayla lived far further away than Nico had anticipated - with a distant aunt on the outskirts and it took far too long to get there. He fell out of the taxi when it came, barely stopping to throw some money towards the driver. Lou Ellen went first up a narrow pathway and to knock on the neat white door.

"It's the middle of the night," Nico realised suddenly.

"Bit late to worry about that now," Cecil said. “Besides it’s so late it’s actually pushing morning.”

Nico needn't have worried because Kayla came to the door after a short interval apparently forewarned that they’d be dropping by; unlike Lou Ellen and Cecil who were dressed as though in a hurry and the dark, she looked put together and surprisingly serious in dark leggings and a green tank top, her short red hair brushed and tied up.

"What's going on," she asked. Her eyes settled on him and her expression changed. "Nico?"

"We need to know where your brother is," Lou Ellen said.

"You couldn't have just called?" Kayla asked relaxing slightly from panic station and stifling a yawn.

"I had a feeling he was probably here, or around here and we needed to speak to him. In person. So he couldn't hang up on us. Or freak out that we were bringing his ex who broke his heart."

Nico winced.

Kayla seemed to think about that. She swept her gaze over Lou Ellen who was sincere, to Cecil who was surprisingly impatient to Nico. Nico didn't know what she saw in his face but she relented.

"He was here," she said. "He went out about an hour ago."

"He was here?" Nico asked before he could help it.

He'd been entirely focused on Kayla before and the next step in finding Will before something bad happened, but now he noticed one of Will's jackets hung over the banister, a pile of medical textbooks in the corner. His heart gave an involuntary swoop - both excited and hurt. Seeing Will's things, seeing Will's life away from the apartment, away from him was strange. He could almost see Will. like an after image, tossing his jacket at the stairs and it landing draped perfectly, running out of the kitchen holding toast and a textbook late as usual.

"Do you know where he went?" Kayla asked. "Or why?"

Kayla shook her head.

"He doesn't know anyone around here," she said. "I don't know where he'd go."

Nico's phone vibrated and he snatched it up. Instead of Jason as he'd expected the message was from Will.

"Are you alright Nico?"

Nico hadn't felt himself fall but he was now only being supported by the wall and Cecil who had managed to grab hold of his arm.

"Nico?"

Lou Ellen and Kayla's faces swam, blurry in front of him. Up until that moment he hadn't thought Will was in any immediate danger, just general danger and while it had been important to warn him away from his shady boss who it turned out was at war with Jason’s shady father, and possibly his shady father, it hadn’t been life or death.

Jason had said that people were moving against them, but had implied that so far this had happened in small targeted strikes. Except small scuffles weren't how you took power. Small scuffles were little more than - distractions.

Will accused him of not having seen many films, but Nico had seen the godfather right up to the end.

Will hadn't texted since they'd broken up.

"What?"

That was Lou Ellen. She was responding to him but he hadn't realised he'd said anything aloud. Cecil scowled and snatched the phone out of his hand.

"It's a picture message," Cecil said for the benefit of the others. "Looks like a building site?"

"It's a trap," Lou Ellen said.

"Obviously," Cecil said.

"We'll go anyway," Lou Ellen said.

"Obviously."

"I'm coming," Kayla said.

"No," Nico said, finally forcing himself back to reality. "No you guys can't. You have to stay here."

He was met with three identical stares.

"You don't know who these people are - " Nico didn't either but that was neither here nor there and he didn't want to draw attention to that. "I'll go."

The three identical stares deepened into three identical glares.

"He's my brother!"

"He's my best friend."

"We're not going to just leave him."

Nico didn't have time to argue it with them. He snatched his phone back from Cecil and turned and stormed out.

"Do you know where that is?" Kayla called after him, annoyingly calm and far too pragmatic.

Nico stopped. He didn't turn because that would have been giving her the satisfaction of knowing she had him.

"No,” he admitted grudgingly.  

"So you do need us."

If Nico was against Lou Ellen and Cecil stupidly risking their lives, he hated it even more that Kayla was now along for the ride. Kayla didn't seem to care: had just pulled on her jacket and began walking leaving the others with a choice of standing in her hallway or following.

As they walked Nico got another text. He tried to be surreptitious in checking his phone, falling back slightly so the others didn't see. He was glad he did, because the next picture showed a pool of red. Not ketchup. He pushed down the desire to vomit, or freak out and forced the others to move faster.

The streets passed and Nico kept checking his phone, compulsively ensuring he hadn’t accidentally missed the vibrating of further messages. He wondered who was sending them. Was it Will? Unlikely. Of all the people Will could reach out to, he doubted Will would reach out for him. Besides while the building site made sense of sorts, the blood was a threat.

Nico didn't respond well to threats.

In the dead of night the streets looked the same, the flickering lights casting orangey glow over the pavements, reflecting in the heavy sky and in the mist that collected on the ground around their feet. The alleyways were gaping holes. After what felt like an age, something that could have been Will's building site suddenly loomed - two derelict towers set for demolition, a deep pit that might have been the foundations for something new. And on the other side of the street the skeleton of a new apartment block.

"Great," Nico said. "Thanks Kayla. You can go home now."

"You want her to walk the streets alone?" Cecil asked. "That sounds more dangerous to be honest."

"No," Nico said. "You two are going to take her. And call the police on your way."

Kayla scowled but Nico cut right over her.

"Don't make him lose you," he told her. It was harsh and Kayla flinched, but she wavered and that made it worth it.

"We're staying here," Lou Ellen said in tons that didn’t offer a chance for argument. "But we won't go in. Though only on the condition that you promise not to do anything stupid. We'll call the police from here."

It was a compromise and Nico pretended to agree to it. Stupid seemed to be all he could manage when it came to Will.

The night was surprisingly soft. His senses were on high alert, and he moved slowly letting the haze shroud the sound of his footsteps. There weren't any streetlights here, no one living to need them, but he was still an obvious patch of darkness against the mist that wasn't quite thick enough to cover him. He felt horribly exposed approaching the building, and he was relieved when he ducked into the empty rectangle the would one day be the front door.

In a horrifyingly ironic twist, the layout of the building was similar to home. He knew almost instinctively where he had to go. He checked the first floor anyway, thorough. There was nothing just empty, impersonal concrete and hollow rooms where his footsteps sounded loud against a back drop of silence.

He swallowed and tried to stop his heart beating so loudly. Would anyone else be able to hear it? It felt like they would be able to, like it was broadcasting his fear to everyone within a twenty mile radius. His phone buzzed again and he brought it out with shaking fingers. Another picture message. This one was blurry and confused but he eventually realised it was a zoomed in photo and the three blurry patches of darkness only just visible were Lou Ellen, Cecil and Kayla.

Fear initially stopped him dead, legs like led, but then he shoved his phone back into his pocket and used it to push him up the stairs.

One flight then two.

They'd lived together on the fifth floor. First door on the left. Instead of wood there was just an empty gaping gap, and it wasn't quite in the right place. Nico talk a breath and walked in.

And found himself faced with an empty room.

He looked around in confusion. It was nothing like their apartment after all, the proportions all wrong, the bare walls at different angles. Nico took another couple of steps forward, confused, wondering if he'd been wrong. Even if Will wasn't here, he'd expected someone. Guards. Criminal guys. Thugs. Ninjas?

He was new to this criminal empire thing.

Perhaps that's why it was only just occurring to him that there also should have been guards all through the building if this was a trap. There was nothing.

But then who had taken the photo?

He crossed slowly to the square hole in the wall that would become a window. He could distantly see Lou Ellen, Cecil and Kayla. This had to be where the photo was taken from. The angle was right. And he'd received that while he was on the stairs. Whoever it was must still be in the building somewhere.

The thought chilled him. He turned, rapidly so he no longer had his back to room and saw someone watching him.

He jumped, took a step backwards and found his legs hitting the wall, his back hitting nothing but open air and a five story drop.

Clouds cleared momentarily as the tall figure took a step forward, and Nico caught sight of the weapon trained on him and a flash of blonde hair. His heart stopped.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope it was worth the wait   
> x


	24. Chapter Twenty Three - Where's a Policeman When You Need One?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zeus and Luke go head to head resulting in chaos. Nico just wants to find Will.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter Title taken from Suburbia by the Pet Shop Boys.

Nico had been living with Will enough to know him on sight. Or at least he thought he had. After his heart stopped the figure took another step forward and suddenly the blonde hair was the wrong blonde and though the figure was about Will's height, his build was off - more muscular and with broader shoulders. Nico’s heart restarted as his mistake became clear, then stopped again as he realised that if this wasn't Will than he didn't know who it was.

He watched the other man. The other man watched him. Neither made a move. Finally the gun was lowered and the figure came fully into the what dim light was provided by the moon. He was attractive in a harsh way - his face was all angles and he had a scar marring one cheek.

"Expecting someone?"

His voice wasn't what Nico had expected - there was a faintly mocking undertone but on the whole it was soft, polite. It wasn't the voice of a villain from the movies, and Nico had to remind himself this wasn't the movies. This was real life and if he made a mistake now it could be a fatal one. And if he died he'd never be able to warn Will, warn Lou Ellen, Kayla and Cecil, warn Jason and Percy.

"Who are you?" Nico asked.

The stranger laughed and titled his head to the side.

"I knew you were clueless," he said. "But I didn't know quite how clueless you really were."

He tossed something at Nico, something that glinted in the moonlight. Nico caught it automatically, only belatedly realising that might not have been his best idea. It was just a phone though, Will's phone he realised as he turned it over.

"Where did you get this?" Nico demanded. "What have you done with Will?"

The blonde who was definitely not Will raised an eyebrow.

"I haven't done anything with him," he said. "Not in the sense you mean. If anything I saved him. And I got that out of his pocket about an hour ago. No, he doesn't know I have it. And before you ask I know the passcode because I saw him putting it in once."

"Why text me?"

The stranger sighed and shrugged, putting the gun in his back pocket and leaning against a wall. It seemed an odd move for someone who had apparently lured Nico up here.

"To get you here. I wanted to have a chat. About you. And your father."

Nico was getting tired of the games. He stared the stranger down until the stranger laughed.

"I'm Luke," he said. "You know, Thalia’s ex, your ex-boyfriend’ boss, the one Zeus hates."

It was weird hearing Jason's father referred to as Zeus. It was the only name he'd heard for him, but it was such a fanciful nickname that Nico only ever thought of the man as _Jason's father_.

"You stole something from him," Nico pointed out, with little sympathy.

"Something he stole from Horatio Lords in the first place."

"Why do you care?" Nico demanded. "Horatio Lords is dead. What is all this to you?"

"Who said he's dead?" Luke asked.

Nico stared at him.

"The police reports. Presumably some professional people at a hospital somewhere."

Luke was quiet.

"You can't just fake a death,” Nico snapped. “Not these days."

Luke shrugged.

"It's hardly why we're here anyway," he said. "I said I saved Will and I want you to know I meant it. Zeus was after him. He thought he was one of mine. Which to be fair he was, though I'm pretty sure Will's only in it for the money. Not for him the revolution."

That made sense however much Nico didn't want it to. Will would have left the house in the early hours of the morning if his shady boss - if Luke had asked. What he didn't get was why. He still wasn't entirely convinced Luke wasn't just making everything up to screw with him.

"Believe me, don't believe me. Doesn't matter either way to me. I just thought someone should tell you the truth after so many years of lies and cover ups."

Luke's words were soft. He didn't taunt and he didn't mock. It made him more dangerous. He was cynical, maybe a little bitter but he wasn't posionous. He didn't seem mad or power hungry. He seemed reasonable. And Nico had a feeling that he was telling the truth.

"What is the truth?"

"That Naomi Solace was murdered. That Zeus covered it up because he thought it might look bad on one of his little proteges. That Zeus stole Naomi Solace's money and made it so her son had to turn to me when his sister got sick. That Zeus created the circumstances for the death of your sister and he didn't care. That I got hurt in a fight doing a job for my father because he was in Zeus' circle."

"You're saying they are criminals. Some class of gangster."

Luke thought about that.

"There's a line right Nico?" Luke said, just when Nico thought he wasn't going to answer the question at all. "It's a thin line but an important one. Between some shady corporate deals where people get hurt, and shady criminal businesses where people get murdered? You've always known they are shady. You and Jason and Percy."

He paused.

"And Thalia," he said softly. "You all wanted to believe that they weren't so bad so you invented the line. Faceless corporations on one side. Criminal gangs from the movies on the other. I'm saying it's not black and white."

Nico decided he didn't like him on principal. He hated him for luring him here. He hated that Will was involved with him and now Will was entangled in some messy family drama that everyone but him seemed to understand.

But he still couldn't deny that Luke was making good points.

"Where is Will?" Nico asked.

"One of our places. Actually, near your old apartment. It's a Chinese takeaway on the outside which is -" Luke wrinkled his nose "- a little bit on the nose I'll admit. But the fortune cookies made great communication tools. You just had to be careful you sent the right order to the right address."

"That's all I wanted," Nico said. "Though thanks for monologuing at me."

Luke laughed. Nico hadn't expected him to.

"Any time Nico. I mean that. Whenever you want to chat. Or if you need a question answered you can call me. Will has my number. You two should get back together by the way. He's miserable without you."

Nico frowned.

"Time's up anyway," Luke said. "I think your friends called the cops."

Nico turned and looked out the window and saw the tell-tale flashing turning the mist red.

He turned back and saw Luke turning to leave. 

"What did you use for the blood?" Nico asked.

Luke stopped, but didn’t turn.

"I have a friend who works in TV. It's the stuff they use in horror films. I thought it would get your attention if the first picture didn't."

He was right, it had caught his attention but he was wrong to think he wouldn't have come with the first. That he wasn't coming already.

Luke was gone and it was time for Nico to leave as well. Nico jogged down the stairs and left via the back, narrowly avoiding the police with the crisscrossing beams of their flashlights.

Lou Ellen jumped when Nico rejoined them. Cecil hit him.

"Don't just appear like that!"

Kayla was watching Nico closely, practically bouncing on the balls of her feet.

"You took so long," she said. "Was Will -?"

"No," Nico said. "He wasn't there. But he's safe. I uh - met Luke."

Kayla frowned, Lou Ellen and Cecil looked blank.

"I need to go back home," Nico said.

He'd managed to downplay the threat still facing Will, overplaying Luke's involvement as a protective benefactor to the point where the other three consented to going back to their respective homes. As soon as the taxi that had taken them back to the city pulled away with Lou Ellen and Cecil in the back, Nico began running.

He knew these streets well. He knew the neon ice cream sign. He knew that particular street lamp. And he knew the Chinese. It was actually one of the best around and Nico wondered how on earth Luke had gotten hold of it. If Luke was right, and Jason's father - _Zeus_ \- really was after Will then he didn't trust a group of people Jason's father hated to keep Will safe. Nico would have to negotiate a deal. Nico would have to be the one to protect him.

Nico's phone ran while he was running towards the red lights of the Chinese. He hissed in irritation but it was Jason so he ducked into an alleyway and stood under a flickering orange light to answer the call.

"Where are you?" Jason demanded. "And what are you doing? I've been calling."

"Went to find Will," Nico said. "You know like we planned. I ended up meeting Luke instead."

"You what? It doesn't matter. You know how I said Luke was on this big mission to get back at my father and that I thought Will might end up in the firing line."

Wrong place, wrong time Nico thought.

"Yeah?"

"I was wrong. My father is targeting Will specifically."

Nico was so quiet Jason obviously thought he'd hung up.

"Nico!"

"I'm here," Nico said. He barely recognised his own voice.

"My father still thinks Will was only with you to get information on his. He thinks he ditched you when it became apparent you didn't know anything. I'm so sorry Nico this is all my fault."

It was, but Nico didn't really have time to let Jason feel guilty about that.

"He would have found out sooner or later," he said with a sigh. "Will your father meet with me? I can explain everything and then -"

"Tonight Nico. They're going for him tonight. Luke just knocked his men back in New Jersey so he's taking revenge now."

Nico didn't wait to find out how Jason knew that. He hung up without meaning too, and was running before he could think. He fell to a halt across the road from the brightly lit Chinese take-away. For a moment he hovered, wondering what had seen and instinctively recognised that had brought him to such an abrupt stop. He ducked back into the shadow of a doorway and scanned the scene opposite.

The street wasn't well lit - the orange lights were patchy and the road in consequence was greenish grey in places, deep black in others. Right outside the Chinese a youth with bright pink hair was trying to light a cigarette in the red light from the fake paper lanterns. Her lighter clicked once, twice than came into life. She got the cigarette lit, then moved on.

The bright light at the end of her cigarette bobbed as she walked, reflecting on the bonnet of a shiny black car.

Nico flicked his eyes back to the car. It was idling. It was waiting.

Nico swore emphatically. It was perfectly possible this was one of Luke's cars. Or Horatio's he supposed, if he believed that Horatio was actually the power behind the throne. Except it probably wasn't and Jason was right there really wasn't going to be time for any kind of negotiation.

So going through the front door was no longer an option.

 _Don't panic. Don't let yourself panic._ He took a deep breath, ignored the way his chest constricted and tried to pull back his focus.

Nico left the shadows of the doorway and walked away, as subtly and non-threateningly as he could, turned the corner and picked up his pace until he could dart into the alleyway that divided the back of the Chinese from a suspicious looking store and the back of a pizza place.

He found the door but then found it didn't open. He had no experience picking locks beyond what he'd seen on TV and he had no idea how to kick a door down bar similar theatrical viewing. He deliberated unhappily when he saw a window open up above. He traced the route down, a drainpipe, a conditioning unit, the edge of the window sill.

It wasn't a graceful climb and he barked his shin against the brick and scraped up his elbows as he scrambled from the sill to the unit. He began to wish he'd put more effort into gym at school, or that he actually visited a gym once in a while like Jason. His upper body strength was appalling. He did make it to the window, however, and pushing the window up as far as it could go, and slipped down into a dim room.

He stilled, listening for signs that he had been heard, but there were none. He cautiously made his way to the door, acutely aware of every footstep, of the pounding in his heart. He put an ear to the door but couldn't hear any movement outside, so he caught hold of the handle and pushed the door open a crack.

A sliver of yellow light spilt in and Nico narrowed his eyes against the glare. When he'd readjusted he peered out through the crack. The corridor beyond was kind of disappointing on the villainous lair front - hard wearing brown carpet and off-white walls - but there was no one around.

He opened the door fully at the exact same time as a door opposite was opened. Two people stared out at him - a dark haired guy who was probably approaching thirty and had worry lines in his forehead and a girl about Nico's age who was chewing gum.

There was a pause.

Nico had a split second to decide which way to run - left, right, back? He chose left.

The other two didn't follow him. Over the sound of his feet he heard the girl ask if that was Nico Di Angelo. He didn't hear the man's reply.

"Do we have to do anything about that?" the girl asked.

"Nah."

Nico thought that for a criminal organisation slash revolutionary group (and he still wasn't exactly sure where exactly Luke's group stood with regards to the black and white scale Luke had insisted didn't exist) their security was kind of lax. He passed three more people all of whom regarded him with a vague sort of indifference.

He didn't find Will.

Nico was beginning to think Luke was having him on when he crashed into an Asian guy in an eyepatch. The eyepatch was so cartoon villain that Nico thought it must be ironic. The guy dressed ironically, in a red plaid shirt over a band shirt for a group Nico was sure not even Will would have heard of, and jeans with the bottoms rolled up.

"Nico Di Angelo," the Asian guy said. "Luke said you might drop by. You're too late. Will's not here anymore."

Nico felt like hitting someone and the Asian guy was awfully close.

"Well, where is he then?"

"Beats me," the Asian guy said sounding supremely unconcerned. "I owe Will a debt so I didn't ask."

Why couldn't anything be easy? Did Will not know the danger he was in? Did the Asian guy not know the danger he was in?

He wasn't much older than Nico.

Was he also fighting against something he didn't really understand? Nico made a decision.

"Jason's - Zeus's men are coming. I think some of them might be outside already."

Ethan studied Nico with interested like Nico had performed an unepected trick.

"We know," Ethan said. "Most everyone's gone out the back now. But it was surprisingly decent of you to try and warn us. Will headed left from here that's all I can give you."

Someone escorted Nico out the back, not a moment too soon it seemed as he heard the sounds of gun shots behind him. He stopped for a moment surprised by the very real and very close violence but then common sense had him moving quickly on.

Left.

Where would Will have gone? He ran down familiar streets, until he realised exactly where he had been taking himself automatically. And maybe Will had done the same.

There were lights on in the apartment. Nico burst through the front door and took the steps at a run. The steps were familiar enough to make his heart ache. He still had his key, he'd never given it back and he yanked out the ring as he ran. Muscle memory had him sorting through the different keys he had accumulated and selected Will's. His hands shook as he tried to fit it in the lock. He could hear the TV through Octavian's front door - who was the noisy one now?

He shoved the door not caring when it slammed back into the wall, skidded on the floor he'd once flooded and then came to an abrupt halt. His eyes had snapped to Will, kneeling on the floor caught frozen in the act of rifling through an old address book that was usually stuffed away in a drawer.

Will stared at him, startled. Nico swallowed and turned his attention to the person next to Will.

Ares - Nico thought. That was Ares. He usually turned up after Jason's father at big events, though Nico didn't think that bodyguard was his actual job. Ares didn't seem patient enough to put in the hours.

He didn't look patient now, which was unfortunate because he was pointing a gun at Will.

"Nico?"

Will's voice didn't even tremble, but he looked confused. And underneath that hurt.

"Ares back off," Nico said.

Ares flicked his eyes over to Nico with barely a flicker of interest.

"Di Angelo," he said.

He attention didn’t flicker away from Will.  

"Ares!" Nico tried again.

"Sorry kid," Ares said. "I've got orders."

Will was still frozen, his expression mildly defiant but Nico thought there might be a slight tremor in his hands.

Nico surged forward. He didn't really know what he thought he was going to do against a man who weighed at last three of him, and had a gun aimed directly at his boyfr – ex boyfriend. Ares just knocked him back with his other hand.

"Ares!"

Nico recognised that voice. It was the voice that used to tell him to turn of the light and go to bed turned up to eleven. A voice used to giving orders.

"If I see you touch my son again, you will regret it."

Ares actually fell back as Nico’s father stalked into the room, sweeping past in a manner that could only have looked more impressive if he were wearing a cloak. His father glanced down at Will, then up at Ares.

"Leave," he said.

Ares had a moment of indecision but then he saw the cold rage in Nico's father's eyes and he sloped out.

"Next time Daddy isn't around you better watch out," Ares hissed as he passed. Nico's father raised an eyebrow at him, and Ares gave him a sardonic smile.

Will stood up and looked at Nico briefly, expression blank. He looked away again, unable to hold Nico’s gaze. His hands were still shaking and Nico's heart broke again. 

"There's a car outside," Nico's father said, addressing Will. "It’ll take you home."

Will nodded and stood.

"Thank you," he said quietly. He passed Nico without looking at him, and Nico thought he wasn't going to stop at all and it hurt but he understood. Then as Nico had let go of his last shred of hope, Will turned and looked at Nico like he was trying to figure something out.

"Why did you come?"

Nico didn't know how to respond to that. He frowned, tried to form words that could explain what Will meant to him, how hard it had been without him. Will's shoulders suddenly relaxed as he released a breath that came out as a short laugh.

"Never mind," Will said. He went to leave again, but then turned back once more. He opened his mouth to say something, visibly rethought and shrugged slightly self-consciously with a fraction of his old smile.  

"See you at the wedding?"

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Complete Edit because I was tired when I wrote the last note and even I couldn't work out what I was talking about]
> 
> Almost done! This turned out quite different than I thought it would when I started, but I've really enjoyed the journey and I hope you have too. There's one chapter left which hopefully will be out next week which should wrap everything up. 
> 
> I'm toying with the idea of a sequel at the moment. If you'd be interesting in some more AU Will and Nico drama, with more of the gang vs Luke, let me know!


	25. Epilogue - I Love You, You Pay My Rent

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nico tries to get his life back on track.

Nico had not seen Will since Ares had nearly shot him in their old apartment. Nico had tried to make peace with that. After all, he had nightmares where Ares had pulled the trigger, nightmares where his impulsive decision to rush at Ares had made Ares pull the trigger. Will was better off away from it all. Away from him.

It didn't stop the strange, hollow feeling in his chest. Nico floated through his days, faint and distanced from the world. He was tired. He was alone.

Well, not completely alone.

Jason and Percy spent a lot of time in Reyna's apartment. They helped him search for a new job, helped him sift through the endless advertisements for roommates to try and find him somewhere to live that wasn't Reyna's spare room. Not that Reyna cared about him living among her washing, but Nico finally recognised he needed a fresh start.

The job-hunt was easier than looking for a home. Every apartment he looked at felt wrong. There was always something: too many plants, too many cats, too much glitter. Or there wasn't enough light, or there was too much. Or there were too many stairs. Or one time when he was really running out of excuses, the aura didn't feel right. Jason asked him what he was actually looking for after Nico crossed off another place for another arbitrary reason. Jason didn't really need to ask. He knew and Nico knew he knew.

Cecil and Lou Ellen were also constants in his life now. Cecil eventually took charge of his job hunt and though some of his suggestions were ridiculous - Nico wasn't sure Ninja was an actual job with an actual salary, and zombie stunt double was just plain ridiculous - Cecil was very good at coming up with official sounding jargon to put on the application forms. Meanwhile Lou Ellen had developed a fondness for healthy eating, including power milkshakes and the three of them had migrated to a little cafe far from their usual haunts. Nico was glad for that. His old world held too many painful memories.

He was ignoring his father's world too, as best he could. He'd had enough of a conversation with his father to ensure that Will Solace, who had nothing to do with anything not really, would be safe from any further attack and then he withdrew. Percy was trying to do the same, concentrating on the wedding that was rapidly approaching.

Nico was worried about Jason though. He always looked tired. He was being pulled in, Nico thought, into that dark underworld their fathers operated into. Into the drama with Luke. It was harder for Jason to stay away, with Thalia all tangled up in everything and, for the moment, completely AWOL. No one knew where she was, what she was doing. Whether she'd sided with Luke.

Luke.

Nico wondered if Will was still working with him. He wondered what Luke was up to, what his plans were now. At night when Reyna's little box room was a grainy grey and the sounds of traffic had died down the the occasional growl, when he was nearing sleep and his defences were wearing down he thought of Luke's words. A traitorous part of him was intrigued. He still hadn't figured out what had happened to Will's mom. He still hadn't figured out exactly what had happened to Bianca.

With the wedding fast approaching, Percy was becoming increasingly stressed. He still had work to do and papers were starting to pile up. Nico returned home from an interview to find him in Reyna's living room with a slightly wild expression and hair that was even messier than usual. There were books spread out around him, a laptop balanced on the coffee table. Reyna was providing him with snacks. Percy acknowledged Nico around the pen clamped between his teeth, then properly registered that Nico had just walked in and shoved a book at him.

"Can you take that back to the library?" he said. "It was due yesterday."

Nico didn't have anything else to do that afternoon and, as part of his new life not following in his father's footsteps, he was trying to be nicer. He took the proffered book.

The sun was peeping out from the clouds. The library was crowded with students rushing in and out, clutching stacks of books. Every time he saw a flash of blonde, his heart jolted. It was never Will. Why would it be? He hurried on, staring down at the pavement so he wouldn't have to continue on his path of complete disappointment.

"Hey."

Nico looked up, sharply. He could barely breathe. He hardly dare move unless the dream shattered. 

"Percy said you were looking for a room?"

Nico stared at Will Solace. Will's voice had been light and teasing but his eyes were downcast, staring at the pavement.

"Percy talks too much," Nico answered automatically. He blinked, willed himself not to completely break down.

"How long have you been waiting here?" Nico asked attempting casual. Will gave a half laugh in response.

"About twenty minutes," he admitted with a shrug. "I wanted to -"

He broke off and ran a hand through his hair. He took a deep breath.

"I wanted to say sorry," he continued. "You saved my life -"

"- technically my dad -"

"Shut up Neeks," Will said sternly, though his expression was anything but. He looked wretched, trying not to laugh, trying not to cry. "I'm trying to apologise here. The point is if it hadn't been for you I probably would be dead."

"If it weren't for me you'd have never been in that situation in the first place," Nico mumbled.

Will frowned.

"How on earth did you work that one out?"

"Jason's dad, he went after you because Jason told him you were only dating me to screw with me beacuse -"

He stopped. Will just looked confused.

"Jason's dad went after me because I was working with Luke. That was my own stupid fault."

Nico shrugged.

"Agree to disagree?"

Will laughed incredulously. Nico had somehow managed to forget what that sounded like. He felt a little lighter, a little steadier, the whole in his chest filled in an inch or two. The words _I shouldn't have broken up with you_ hovered on his lips, he clamped his mouth shut so they wouldn't spill out.

"I know we ended on weird terms," Will said. "But -"

"Yes," Nico said in a rush before he had time to think, before he had time to overthink.

"Yes?" Will asked, apparently a little thrown. Nico stared at him evenly. Don't panic. Don't otherthink. Don't throw this away. 

"Percy was right," Nico said feigning casual indfifference. "I need a room. That's what you were asking right?"

Will's expression went from confused, to sudden understanding, to amusement.

"How much is the rent?" Nico asked teasingly.

Will gave him a grin.

"Well," he said slowly. "I don't know if you've heard but someone gave me an apartment -"

Nico felt himself beginning to smile now.

"I'm not a great roommate," Nico warned.

"You probably won't be the worst I've had," Will answered. Nico had forgotten how light Will's eyes could be, how they could sparkle with mischief. How could he forget? How could he have lived without it?

What the hell had he been thinking giving it up?

"Oh yeah?" Nico answered, raising an eyebrow in challenge.

"Yeah, the last roommate I had flooded my apartment, hated disney movies and had this insane family who tried to kill me."

"Well the last roommate _I_ had worked for this shady mob boss. He'd come home all covered in blood. All our neighbours commented on it."

Will had moved closer, or maybe Nico had.

"My last roommate made me fall for him," Will countered. "And then broke up with me for stupid reasons. Like his best friend convincing him I was on some revenge mission for the death of my mom."

Nico closed his eyes.

"That was really stupid of him," he said.

"Intensely," Will agreed.

"You know," Nico said, stepping back suddenly serious. "It's all still going on. Luke. My dad. Jason's family. I don't want you involved. I barely want to be involved myself."

"Too late for that now," Will said. He was serious too now, and quiet. "I'm pretty involved. Again, my fault for ending up with Luke."

Nico sighed but Will was right. Will was involved. And what was it Lou Ellen and Cecil had said: _m_ _iserable without him._  It had worked both ways.

"So," Nico said softly. "We're starting again?"

Will was still quiet, suddenly shy.

"If you want to," he said, hesitant and hopeful and looking like he actually thought there was a chance in hell Nico could say no. A flippant response came to Nico's lips but then he paused. Will needed to hear a real answer. He himself needed to hear a real answer.

"I want to," he said. He only just managed to force the truth out, but Will heard.

"Good," he said softly. Then, eyes gleaming seriousness gone, he added: "I've always wanted my own baby mob boss boyfriend."

Nico rolled his eyes, fond and frustrated and feeling better than he had in weeks. 

"You are the worst person I've ever met," Nico replied, falling back to the familiar grounds of sarcasm which wasn't nearly so exhausting.

"You love me," Will teased, holding out his hand a question in his eyes. Nico took his hand and the world shifted back into place. 

"Of course I love you," Nico answered matching Will's tones. "You pay my rent."

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And we're there! Finished! 
> 
> Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed the story! 
> 
> (There will be a sequel coming relatively soon so look out for that...)
> 
> x


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